350 APPENDIX. 



trifling presents to distribute among the Turkish agas, 

 or head people of the villages, whom we might chance 

 to fall in with ; these consisting of some boxes of lu- 

 cifer matches, some cigars, and last, though by no means 

 least, a bottle or so of good ship's rum, — of rum Inglitz, 

 as they pronounce it, a never-failing resource to win 

 their hearts when all other means have failed. Having 

 passed a very pleasant day, we again topped the boom 

 to a light easterly breeze, and the following morning 

 anchored below the castellated walls of my little com- 

 mand. 



My next trip in the Ariel cutter was to the ruins of 

 Nicopolis, situated near to which is Arta, the most 

 southern town on the west coast of Turkish Albania, 

 and is about ten miles to the northward of St. Maura. 

 We ran down the thirty miles with a fair wind, and lay 

 to, in a large bay opposite the ruins of this once noted 

 place, while I and my friend went on shore to examine 

 them. They are very perfect, particularly the tv/o thea- 

 tres, more so, indeed, than any that I think I after 

 visited in Greece ; and many of the public buildings I 

 was surprised to find in so small a state of decay, 

 considering the lapse of time since this town was 

 erected. We shot our three or four couple of wood- 

 cocks in the streets of that town once so famous, and 

 built to commemorate the battle of Actium, which is 

 supposed to have been fought off Prevesa, a town 

 close by ; and having partaken of a hearty lunch, we 

 returned to the beach. But this may well be called 

 a treacherous sea ; for, during the short time we were 

 absent, a strong breeze had got up from the west, and it 



