470 ANNUAL R EGIS T E R, ISI2. 



France and Spain, within the 

 Straits, thirty per cent is given. 

 All the profits, after paying all the 

 capitalists, is divided on the same 

 principle, and by the same rule, as 

 a freight earned by charter. Losses 

 by accidents of navigation are sus- 

 tained by the capitalists ; but those 

 arising from bad sales, fall on the 

 captain and the crew, who are 

 obliged to make good the defi- 

 ciency. The first time that I vi- 

 sited this island, there was a vessel 

 in the port, which, by an unsu<- 

 cessful voyage, had incurred a loss 

 of no less than four thousand 

 pounds sterling ; and this sum the 

 crew and captain were then mak- 

 ing good to the capitalists. 



The Idriots never insure their 

 ships or cargoes. The vessels ge- 

 nerally belong to a great number 

 of persons, and some of the capi- 

 talists have only five or ten pounds 

 sterling embarked in one bottom. 

 The value of their several shares is 

 not of sufficient importance to in- 

 duce the owners to think of insur- 

 ing them. In the early period of 

 their history, to purchase a cargo 

 of grain, for it is chiefly by their 

 trade in that article that tiie Idriots 

 have acquired their wealth, was 

 in some sort a public undertaking. 

 The whole community was con- 

 cerned in it. 



The character and manners of 

 the common Idriot sailors, from 

 the moral effect of these customs, 

 is much superior, in regularity, to 

 the ideas that we are apt to enter- 

 tain of sailors. They are sedate, 

 well dressed, well bred, shrewd, 

 informed, and speculative. They 

 seem to form a class in the orders 

 of mankind, which has no exist- 

 ence among us. By their voyages, 

 they acquire a liberality of notion, 



which we expect only among gen- 

 tlemen ; while, in their domestic 

 circumstances, their conduct is 

 suitable to their condition. The 

 Greeks are all traditionary histo- 

 rians, and possess much of that 

 kind of knowledge to which the 

 term " learning" is nsually applied. 

 This, mingled with the other in- 

 formation of the Idriots, gives 

 them that advantag-eous character 

 of mind, which, 1 think, they pos- 

 sess. 



The town is certainly a very ex- 

 traordinary jjlace. The houses rise 

 from the border of the port, which 

 is in the form of a horse-shoe, in 

 successive tiers, to a great height, 

 and many of them appear on the 

 pinnacles of cliffs which would 

 make a Bath or an Edinburgh gar- 

 reteer giddy to look from. The 

 buildings are all brightly white- 

 washed ; and a number of wind- 

 mills being, almost constantly, in 

 motion on the heights, the effect 

 of the scene, with the addition of 

 the bustle on the wharfs below, is, 

 at once, surprising, and uncom- 

 monly cheerful. 



There are upwards of forty pa- 

 rochial churches in the town ; and 

 two of them are adorned with 

 handsome steeples. Idra forms 

 part of the diocese of Egina and 

 Paros, one of the richest bishoprics 

 of Greece. The nett income is 

 estimated at upwards of six hun- 

 dred pounds sterling. The epis- 

 copal residence is in Egina, but 

 the bisho)) visits Idra every year. 

 The population of the town is 

 said to exceed twenty thousand 

 souls ; and I think it is not exag- 

 gerated . 



There were, when I was there, 

 no public schools but those of the 

 parochial priests. Eight of the 



principal 



