356 APPENDIX. 



Rassuli had often heard us talk of shooting, and 

 never failed to endeavour to persuade us to try some 

 day, under his guidance, the celebrated island of Syhota 

 (now commonly called the Black Island), where he as- 

 sured us there were a large number of wild boar. 

 There being little other game on the island, added to its 

 distance from Corfu, made the persuasions of Rassuli 

 ineffectual, till one day in the summer, when no other 

 occupation presented itself, a party of us agreed to take 

 the robber at his word, and make a descent upon his 

 boasted preserve. 



Accordingly, a party of seven left Corfu in a friend's 

 yacht, of the R.Y.S., one evening, and, arriving at 

 the abode of my esteemed friend, he at once ac- 

 ceded, with delight, to our proposition, and proceeded 

 to make preparations for the much talked of and 

 long rejected chase. A very opportune present of 

 some gunpowder and toys, in which latter articles he 

 appeared to take great delight, accelerated considerably 

 the proverbially slow movements of the Moslem ; and 

 after our eyes had been gratified by a glimpse at his 

 pretty wife, we proceeded, and, according to his direc- 

 tions, about twenty of his men commenced driving or 

 scouring the island, all the sportsmen having been pre- 

 viously placed in the tracks or passes through which the 

 boars had been in the habit of running. A set of more 

 wild, desperate-looking fellows I never saw, and such a 

 group collected together cannot be well imagined. One 

 man, in particular, caught my attention. He was work- 

 ing hard in the service of beating the wood for us, utterly 

 regardless of a severe wound in the shoulder, which he 



