242 THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA. 



which rush through these narrow island channels, and by the 

 waves of the seas surrounding them.* In witnessing such a 

 spectacle magnificent wherever it be the voyager in this 

 sea may fairly assume that the poet himself had gazed on 

 the very objects before him; and drawn from them that 

 noble imagery, which has become the inheritance and poetic 

 wealth of every succeeding age. 



Among the other islands of the Mediterranean, we are 

 bound to notice the Ionian Isles and Malta, as parts of that 

 vast and complex sovereignty which Englishmen have spread 

 over the face of the globe. We count them among our de- 

 pendencies, though they cannot justly or expediently be con- 

 sidered as colonies. The Ionian Isles, indeed, we should be 

 willing to regard as a possession held in trust for some future 

 Greek sovereignty in the Levant, better constituted than the 

 feeble little kingdom which now bears this name though em- 

 bracing but an inconsiderable portion of the Greek soil and 

 race. If ever detached from our rule, these islands will carry 

 with them the memorial of much we have effected, or 

 sought to effect, for their good ; an acknowledgement grudg- 

 ingly made by the present generation of lonians, but which 

 will more frankly and truly come from their posterity. 



Among the great physical features of the Mediterranean, 

 the most peculiar are, that singular Strait or portal which 

 forms its entrance from the Ocean ; and those inner channels 

 scarcely less remarkable, which connect it with the lesser 

 seas washing the very foot of the Caucasian Chain, and even 

 penetrating into the Eussian Steppes. The Strait of Gibraltar, 

 the great passage between Sea and Ocean, is well worthy of 

 its ancient fame ; and illustrates even to the eye those fables 

 and feelings of earlier times, by which the known and un- 



* I wrote this under the recollection of a stormy December voyage in the 

 Archipelago, in a rude Greek vessel, and with imminent danger at one time of 

 shipwreck on the rocky isle of Sarakino. 



