MOUNT ATHOS. 



229 



and rendered picturesque by a number of spreading oak trees, stand- 

 ing singly and in small groupes, like the scenery of an English park. 

 The sides of the plain are sloping, clothed with hanging woods, and 

 its further extremity shut in by lofty mountains, rising behind each 

 other as far as the eye can reach. The oaks here are so well adapted 

 for naval purposes, that they have been ordered to be sent to the 

 dock-yards at Constantinople. Some have been felled, but as it will 

 cost fifty piastres to bring each of them to the shore, a bribe will pro- 

 bably be given to the government inspector for reporting them unfit 

 for ship-building, and thus the people of the neighbourhood will 

 escape this addition to their heavy imposts. 



At 7 h . 20'. A. M. we passed a village called Negeshalar, beautifully 

 placed on the side of a woody hill ; and at 8 h . 35'. halted in the 

 midst of a forest of oaks, many of which had been lately felled. 

 Here our guides shewed a disposition to prolong their journey in a 

 most tedious manner. After vainly attempting to persuade them to 

 set off, we were forced to proceed on foot without them. In less than 

 an hour we reached Laregovi, and with difficulty procured other 

 muleteers, and hired a strong guard of Albanians to protect the party 

 from robbers, who, they pretended, infested the neighbouring woods. 

 The Codja Bashee of Laregovi has jurisdiction over eleven other towns, 

 the largest of which contains six hundred and the smallest one hun- 

 dred houses ; the police of all these is superintended by him, and he 

 gathers the government taxes. This district belongs to one of the 

 Sultanas at Constantinople, who leaves the local government entirely 

 to native Greeks, merely sending one of her Bostangees or life-guards 

 to enforce the orders of the Greek Codja Bashee, when his people are 

 refractory. Arriving at the town of Gallitze, which contains six hun- 

 dred houses, without one Musulman inhabitant, we found we could 

 procure no lodging ; neither the Sultan's firman nor the Patriarch's 

 recommendatory letter had any influence; one of our guards at length 

 took us to an empty mud cottage, where we passed the night. At 

 seven on the next morning we left Gallitze, and crossed an extensive 

 plain, and at half-past nine reached the beautiful village of Basilika, 



