THE HEIGHTS OF PHALERK. 



same way had been taken to England by Captain Blaquiere* on his 

 return from his first visit, and had passed two years in an English 

 seminary, where he had been placed by a society of Philellene quakers, 

 in order to qualify him, " to teach the young idea how to shoot/' in his 

 native country. Being furnished with proper credentials, on his 

 landing in Napoli, he attired himself in his best Frank suit, and waited 

 upon the Greek government to request their co-operation in the esta- 

 blishment of an academy ; but as they were in no lack of devices for 

 frittering away money, his very reasonable demand was not acceeded to, 

 and the next step was to offer his services to me in the mixed capacity 

 of body servant and interpreter, " God help the mark," for a stipend of 

 two dollars monthly, a proposition with which I immediately closed ; 

 and it is impossible to conceive a being who would have made a worse 

 schoolmaster, or a better and more amusing servant. He would some- 

 times describe to me his early conflicts with the Turks, in some such 

 language as the following : " Dat taime when as is vas beefore come 

 Tark, I'se go faive times in de baattles. De Tarks is go down stairs, 

 pick it up plenty stones make him de howse. I take plenty Greeks, 

 go up stairs, bang ! bang ! Ah, yes, Sar, you please ! dat taime is kill 

 too much Turks ;" all which means that the Turks having entered a 

 defile, were fired down upon from the hills and killed, while vainly 

 attempting to construct a tambouri for their defence but f( something 

 too much of this," I immediately left Piada, " as is vas before call 

 Epidaurus," and descended to the sea in search of a barque to transport 

 me across the Saronic Gulph to Salamis, " as is bye and bye call Colouri." 



The path lay through a quadrangular glen, inclosed on three sides by 

 stupendous rocks, the fourth open to the sea and terminated by a firm 

 and beautiful sand. In this spot flourished the olive, the almond, the 

 fig-tree and the vine, cotton, and an infinite variety of esculents. 



By the time I reached the shore the sun had gone down, and the 

 young moon was shedding her mild radiance " o'er hill and dale and 

 dark blue water." On the beach were a party of boatmen assembled 

 round a blazing fire, preparing their evening repast. Their half-naked 

 muscular forms, their dark mustachioed faces, their uncouth, though 

 picturesque, garments, their long knives, which they never lay aside, 

 their independent, not to say uncivil carriage, the solitude of the place, 

 all conspired to give them the appearance of a lawless banditti rather 

 than peaceful mariners ; and as one of them approached, I involuntarily 

 loosened my pistols in my belt, nor was it without some misgivings, 

 that I agreed to pass the evening in their company, upon learning that 

 the wind would not be favourable till midnight. I concluded a bargain 

 with one of the men, and went on board his barque to sleep, and was 

 only disturbed on the following morning by the grating of the keel on 

 the" shores of Salamis. At Colouri I learned that the army was already 

 on its march ; one division under the command of Bourbaki a Greek 

 who had obtained the rank of colonel in France being destined to 

 attack the Turks from the land side, while the other, then at Ambelachi, 



* This worthy and disinterested man was the bearer of that portion of the Greek 

 loan, which the knaves connected with that affair permitted to be applied to the 

 purpose for which it was raised. His remuneration was the bare payment of his 

 expences. Captain Blaquiere left Falmouth about two years back, in the cause of 

 Donna Maria, in the Fly, which has never since been heard of; and as she was 

 pronounced not sea-worthy, there is every reason to believe that all hands have 

 perished. ED. 



