ISLAND OF PATMOS. 49 
on board our vessel in the harbour. Upon this CHAP. 
honour, it must be confessed, we did not rely 
with so much confidence as we ought to have 
done; but as there was no other method which 
promised any chance of success, we were forced 
to comply; and we left, as we believed, the 
most valuable part of our acquisition in very 
doubtful hands. Just as we had concluded this 
bargain, the French Commissary returned ; and 
finding us busied in the Library, afforded an 
amusing specimen of the sort of system pur- 
sued by Iris countrymen, upon such occasions. 
" Do you find," said he, " any thing worth your 
notice, among all this rubbish?" We answered, 
that there were many things we would gladly 
purchase. " Purchase!" he added, " I should 
never think of purchasing from such a herd of 
swine : if I saw any thing I might require, I 
should, without ceremony, put it in my pocket, 
and say, Bon jour /" 
After this, some keys were produced, belong- 
ing to an old chest that stood opposite to the 
door of the Library ; and we were shewn a few 
antiquities which the monks had been taught 
script in 
to consider as valuable. Among these, the the hand- 
f i i i writing of 
first thing they shewed to us was AN ORIGI- Aiexiu* 
NAL LETTER FROM THE EMPEROR ALEXIUS 
VOL. VI. E 
