

CORFU THE ADRIATIC SYRA. 27 



were a troupe of opera singers and dancers, the former Voyage to 



r r .the Holy 



of whom beguiled the tedium of the voyage. A Chios Land, 

 merchant enlarged on the hateful nature of the Turkish 

 government, a theme not unfrequently suggested by 

 occurrences on the way ; there appeared, indeed, to be 

 an universal opinion that any material improvement was 

 impossible except under foreign intervention. At Corfu Corfu< 

 they tried to get some fresh Zante grapes for the Museum, 

 but found that they were quite unknown there in a 

 cultivated state, being confined to Zante and Cephalonia, 

 where they are grown extensively. They passed by the 

 Adriatic to the Ionian Islands, amongst which is the 

 small island of Paxo, where tradition says the news of p ^o, or 

 the death of the great god Pan was conveyed to the 

 crew of a Venetian ship simultaneously with the occasion 

 of the sufferings of our Lord. The most interesting part 

 was the narrow strait between Ithaca and Cephalonia : 

 the scenery very rugged, and mostly covered with 

 myrtle, laurel, arbutus, olive, and here and there clumps 

 of evergreen oaks. Thence they went by the Strophades 

 to the Arcadian coast ; entered the ^Egean Sea, and 

 skirted the Island of Delos, the reputed birthplace of 

 Apollo, and which contained the second oracle of Greece. 

 Syrti is reached the great centre of Greek commerce, 

 and famous for its schools, in which children are taught 

 Greek, and little girls and boys read Demosthenes in a 

 pure tongue. Hanbury and Dr. Hooker now exchanged 

 the Vulcan for a very large iron screw steamer named 

 the Tfebizond, which was bound for Smyrna. 



The party was most agreeable and very happy, but 

 Hanbury was " atrociously upset." 



The motion of the screw was execrable, making the 

 whole cabin vibrate, and there was an abominable rattling 



