200 



MOUNT ATHOS. 



nominal. The Court of St. Petersburgh makes them an annual pre- 

 sent of about two hundred rubles (301.) 



On a hill adjoining the convent, and surrounded by fine woods, is a 

 large school or academy where ancient Greek was taught : but in 

 consequence of the deficiency of the funds of the institution, this use- 

 ful seminary has been shut up. It contains a lodge for the master, 

 about one hundred and seventy small rooms for students ; and is 

 supplied with water by an acqueduct carried over a long line of 

 arches. If fine air, romantic scenery, and seclusion from the dissipa- 

 tion of the world be favorable to study, this academy should be restored. 

 Forty years ago, the master of it was the celebrated Eugenius, a native 

 of Corfu, and formerly schoolmaster at Ioannina in Epirus. His pro- 

 found knowledge of ancient Greek, as well as of different branches of 

 history and philosophy, soon raised the reputation of the academy at 

 Batopaidi ; and instead of seven caloyers, whom he found on his 

 arrival learning to read the homilies of the Greek church, he was 

 able in a short time to reckon two hundred youths of respectable 

 families, not only from Greece, but from Germany, Venice, and Rus- 

 sia. At length the envy of the caloyers raised a number of calum- 

 nies concerning the morals of the master and students, which ended 

 in his retiring with disgust ; and the ruin of the school immediately 

 followed. Eugenius resided sometime after this at Constantino- 

 ple, as Didascalos, or Lecturer in the Patriarchal church. The 

 reputation of his eloquence and learning induced the Empress Cathe- 

 rine to invite him to Petersburgh ; and she afterwards advanced him 

 to the See of Chersonesus. Of his literary productions one of the 

 most celebrated is his translation of the iEneid into Greek hexame- 

 ter verse. 



The convent paid last year to the Porte fifteen thousand piastres 

 (3501.) as an extraordinary contribution, besides the usual capitation 

 and other taxes ; and it now appears to be forty thousand piastres in 

 debt for sums borrowed at interest. Our principal object being to 

 examine the ancient manuscripts in the different convents of Mount 

 Athos, we found we could not have arrived at a more unpropitious 



