230 FROM THE HELLESPONT 
lest the captain, with whom he had contracted 
for a passage to Constanlinople, should sail 
without him. Next to the work of Tourneforty 
rank the Travels of Egmont and Heyman, who 
saw more of the actual state of the country : 
but still very little is known of the interior of 
the island ; although, according to the observa- 
tions of these gentlemen, it is fertile, and well 
cultivated ; yielding seventy thousand quintals 
of oil annually to the port of Mitylene\ The 
site and remains of the antient towns of Eressus^ 
and Methymna^ were known in the time of 
Tournefort; the former of which still preserves 
its original name, almost unaltered, in the 
modern appellation of Eresso ; and the ruins of 
the latter are yet to be seen*. Excepting Euhcea^ 
this is the largest island in the Mgean Sea. It 
was the mother of many jEolian colonies. Its 
happy temperature conspired with the richness 
of its soil to produce those delicious fruits, 
and those exquisite wines, which are so highly 
extolled by antient writers*. The present state 
(1) Beef was then only one penny the pound in the market of 
Jllit2/lene. 
(2) Famous for the births of Theophrastus and Plmnias, the most 
rcnowped of Aristotle's disciples. 
(3) Famous for the birth o2 Arinn. 
(4) Voy. du Lev. torn. II. p. 84. 
[h)\\Ci.Horut. Lib. i. Od. 17. Firgil. Georg. lib. ii. 8;;, SO. Aul. 
Cell. lib. xiii. c. 5. &c. &c. 
