VISIT TO THE ARCHBISHOP. 113 they laughed and ridiculed the cicerone, and seemed to me to be much accustomed to foreigners. The Morea in fact swarms with Levantines, Franks, Ragusans, Italians, and particularly with young physicians, from Venice and the Ionian islands, who repair hither to dispatch the cadis and agas. The roads are very safe: you find tolerably good living, and enjoy a great degree of liberty, provided you possess a little firmness and prudence. It is upon the whole a very easy tour, especially for a man who has lived among the savages of America. There are always some Englishmen to be met with on the roads of the Peloponnese: the papas informed me that they had lately seen some antiquaries and officers of that nation. At Misitra there is even a Greek house called the English Inn, where you may eat roast beef, and drink port wine. In this particular, the traveller is under great obligation to the English: it is they who have established good inns all over Europe, in Italy, in Switzerland, in Germany, in Spain, at Constantinople, at Athens, nay, even at the very gates of Sparta, in despite of Lycurgus. The Archbishop knew the French vice-consul at Athens, and I think he told me that M. Fauvel had been his guest in the two or three excursions which he has made to Misitra. After I had taken coffee, I was shown the Archbishop's palace and the church. The latter, though it cuts a great figure in our books of geography, contains nothing remarkable. The mosaic work of the pavement is common, and the pictures extolled by Guillet absolutely resemble the daubings of the school that preceded Perugino. As to the architecture, nothing is to be seen but domes more or less dilapidated, and more or less numerous. This cathedral, dedi 114 THE ARCHBISHOP'S LIBRARY. cated to St. Dimitri, and not to the Virgin Mary, as some have asserted, has for its share seven of these domes. Since this ornament was employed at Constantinople in the decline of the art, it has been introduced in all the monuments of Greece. It has neither the boldness of the Gothic nor the simple beauty of the antique. When of very large dimensions, it is certainly majestic, but then it crushes the structure which it adorns: when small, it is a paltry cap, that blends with no other member of the architecture, and rises above the entablature for the express purpose of breaking the harmonious line of the ogee. I observed in the archiepiscopal library some treatises of the Greek fathers, books on controversial subjects, and two or three Byzantine historians, among the rest Pachymeres. It might be worth while to collate the text of this manuscript with the texts which we possess; but it must doubtless have been examined by our two great Grecians, the Abbé Fourmont, and d'Ansse de Villoison. The Venetians, who were long masters of the Morea, probably carried off the most valuable manuscripts. My hosts officiously showed me printed translations of some French works; such as Telemachus, Rollin, and some modern books printed at Bucharest. Among these translations 1 durst not say that I found Atala, if M. Stamati had not also done me the honour to impart to my savage the language of Homer. The translation which I saw at Misitra was not finished: the translator was a Greek, a native of Zante, who happened to be at Venice when Atala appeared there in Italian, and from this version he began his in vulgar Greek. I know not whether I concealed my name from pride or modesty; but my petty fame of authorship was so BAZAR OF MISITRA. 115 highly gratified to find itself beside the brilliant glory of Lacedæmon, that the Archbishop's porter had reason to praise my liberality-a kind of liberality of which I have since repented. It was dark when I left the residence of the Archbishop: we traversed the most populous part of Misitra, and passed through the bazar, asserted in several descriptions to be the Agora of the ancients, under the idea that Misitra is Lacedæmon. This bazar is a wretched market-place, resembling those which are to be seen in our small provincial towns. Paltry shops, shawls, mercery, and eatables, occupy its streets. These shops were then lighted by lamps of Italian manufacture. Two Mainottes were pointed out to me selling, by the light of these lamps, cuttle-fish and the species of marine polypus, distinguished at Naples by the name of frutti di mare. These fishermen, who were tall and stout, looked like peasants of Franche Comté: I observed in them nothing extraordinary. I purchased of them a dog of Taygetus: he was of middling size, with a yellow, shaggy coat, very wide nostrils, and a fierce look. Fulvus Lacon, I called him Argus, the same name which Ulysses gave to his dog. Unluckily, I lost him a few days afterwards in the journey from Argos to Corinth. We met several women wrapped in their long garments: we turned aside to give them the way, in compliance with a custom originating rather in jealousy than politeness. I could not discern their faces; so that I knew not whether Homer's epithet of Kaiyuraina, celebrated for fair women, be yet applicable to Sparta. 116 ARRANGEMENTS FOR DEPARTURE. I returned to Ibrahim's, after an excursion of thirteen hours, during which I had taken but a few moments' rest. Not only can I easily bear fatigue, heat, and hunger, but I have observed that a strong emotion protects me from weariness and gives me new strength. I am besides convinced, and perhaps more than any other person, that an inflexible determination surmounts every difficulty, and even triumphs over time. I determined not to lie down, to employ the night in taking notes, to proceed the next day to the ruins of Sparta, and then continue my journey without returning to Misitra. I took leave of Ibrahim; ordered Joseph and the guide to proceed with their horses along the road towards Argos, and to wait for me at the bridge of the Eurotas, which we had already passed in our way from Tripolizza. I kept the janissary only to accompany me to the ruins of Sparta, and, could I have dispensed with his services, I would have gone alone to Magoula; for I had experienced how much you are harassed in the researches you are desirous of making by your attendants, who grow tired and impatient. CHAPTER IV. Palæochori, Ruins of ancient Sparta-Sensations on beholding them-Temple of Minerva-View from the Hill of the Citadel -The River Eurotas-Search for the Tomb of Leonidas-Earliest Accounts of the Ruins of Sparta-Bivouac on the bank of the Eurotas-Village of St. Paul-Tragic Event-Singular Conduct of a Greek Peasant-The Guide loses the WayDangerous Situation-Marsh of Lerne-Fever-Argos-M. Avramiotti Supposed Tomb of Agamemnon -Ruins of Mycenæ-Arrival at Corinth. HAVING made these arrangements, on the 18th, half an hour before daylight, I mounted my horse with the janissary, and, having given something to the slaves of the kind Ibrahim, I set off at full gallop for Lacedæmon. We had proceeded at that pace for an hour along a road running direct south-west, when, at break of day, I perceived some ruins and a long wall of antique construction: my heart began to palpitate. The janissary turning towards me pointed with his whip to a whitish cottage on the right, and exclaimed, with a look of satisfaction, "Palæochôri! I made up towards the principal ruin, which I perceived upon an eminence. On turning this eminence by the north-west, for the purpose of ascending it, I was suddenly struck with the sight of a vast ruin of semicircular form, which I instantly recognized as |