FROM RHODES, TO THE GTJLPH OF GLAUCUS 141 
of it. Sir Sidney Smith, being here with the Tiger, assured 
me, that in the compass of one week, from the time of his arri¬ 
val, he had not less than one hundred of the crew, upon the sick 
list For myself, I soon became a striking example of the pow¬ 
erful influence of such air, not only from the fever which there 
attacked me, but from a temporary privation of the use of my 
limbs, which were not restored until we put to sea again, I 
have generally remarked, dining my travels, that wherever the 
ruins of ancient cities exist, the air is bad ; owing to the stag¬ 
nant waters caused by the destruction of aqueducts, of conduits 
for public baths, and by the filling up of channels, formerly em¬ 
ployed to convey those waters, which are now left, forming 
marshes and stinking pools. But it is not only to such causes 
that we may ascribe the bad air of the Bay of Macri. The 
lofty mountains, which entirely surround it, leave the gulph, as 
it were, in the bottom of a pit where the air has not a free 
circulation, and where the atmosphere is ofteu so sultry, that 
respiration is difficult: at the same time, sudden gusts of cold 
wind rush down, at intervals, from the snowy heights, carrying 
fever and death to those who expose their bodies to such refresh¬ 
ing, but deceitful gales. Yet the temptations to visit this place, 
notwithstanding the danger, are lamentably strong; there is no 
part of Grecian territory more interesting in its antiquities than 
the Gulph of Giauctis. The ruins of Telmesstis are as little 
known as they are remarkable, in the illustration they afford 
concerning the tombs and the theatres of the ancients. 
We had no sooner entered the mouth of the gulph, than we 
encountered the tremendous swell our pilot had taught us to ex¬ 
pect. At one moment, a gust, as of a hurricane, laid our ves¬ 
sel upon her beam ends; at another, the sails were shaking, as 
in a calm, and the ship pitching in all directions. In this situa¬ 
tion, night came on. Our captain, wishing himself well out at 
sea, was cursing his folly for venturing into such a birth; dryly 
observing, that “ if we did not look sharp, we should get 
smothered before morning/ 5 Land around us on every side, 
increased our apprehensions; but patience and labour at last 
brought us quietly to anchor on the eastern side of one of the 
six isles in the entrance to this bay, behind which, vessels lie 
most commodiously, that visit this place for the purpose of 
watering. During the Egyptian expedition, ships came here. 
ticularly those of Zeitun, the ancient Lamia, and Thessalonica; the great marsh of 
Boeotia; all the northern and western coasts of the Morea; and the whole coastal* 
Eomelia, opposite Corcyra, now Corfu, 
