was not to be perceived. He would then return with a look of dejection, and ask me if I wanted him for any thing. I exhorted him to keep up his spirits, and to take a little nourishment, otherwise he ran the risk of making himself ill. The Greek thought me his dupe, and this gave him so much pleasure, that I never undeceived him. Notwithstanding these small faults, John was in the bottom a very honest man, and deserved the confidence reposed in him by his masters. It may not be amiss to observe that I have delineated this portrait and some others merely to gratify those readers who are curious to know something about the persons to whom they are introduced. For my part, had I a talent for drawing caricatures of this kind, I would assiduously strive to smother it; whatever exhibits human nature in a ludricrous light, seems to me undeserving of esteem. Of course, I mean not to include in this condemnation genuine wit, delicate raillery, the grand irony of the oratorical style, and the higher department of comedy. In the night between the 22d and 23d, the ship brought home her anchor, and we expected every moment to run foul of the wreck of the Alexandrian vessel, near which we lay. The pilgrims from Chio, sixteen in number, arrived on the 23d at noon. At ten P. M. the night being very fine, we got under weigh with a moderate breeze at east, which shifted to the north before daybreak on the 24th. We passed between Nicaria and Samos, celebrated for its fertility, its tyrants, and, above all, for giving birth to Pythagoras. The beautiful episode in Telemachus has effaced all that the poets have told us concerning Samos. We entered the channel formed by the Sporades, Patmos, Leria, Cos, &c. and the coast of Asia. There flowed the winding Meander, there stood Ephesus, Miletus, Halicarnassus, and Cnidus. I greeted, for the last time, the native land of Homer, Heredotus, Hyppocrates, Thales, and Aspasia; but I could perceive neither the temple of Ephesus, nor the sepulchre of Mausolus, nor the Venus of Cnidus; and but for the works of Pococke, Wood, Spon, and Choiseul, I should not have recognised the promontory of Mycale, by its modern and inglorious name. On the 25th at six in A. M. we came to an anchor in the harbour of Rhodes, to take on board a pilot for the coast of Syria: Hh I landed, and went to the house of the French consul, M. Magal lon. Still the same reception, the same hospitality, the same politeness! M. Magallon was ill; he nevertheless introduced me to the Turkish governor, a very good-natured man, who made me a present of a black kid, and gave me permission to go whereever I pleased. I showed him a firman, which he laid upon his head, declaring that he carried all the friends of the Grand Signor in that manner. I was impatient for the termination of this interview, that I might at least get a sight of that celebrated Rhodes, where I had but a moment to spend. Here commenced for me an antiquity that formed the link between the Grecian antiquity which I had just quitted, and the Hebrew antiquity which I was about to explore. The monuments of the Knights of Rhodes roused my curiosity, which was somewhat fatigued by the ruins of Sparta and Athens. Some wise laws respecting commerce,* a few verses by Pindar on the consort of the Sun and the daughter of Venus,t some comic poets, and painters, and monuments more distinguished for magnitude than beauty; such I believe is all that can remind the traveller of ancient Rhodes. The Rhodians were brave; it is a singular circumstance, that they acquired celebrity in arms for having gloriously sustained a siege, like the knights their successors. Rhodes, honoured with the presence of Cicero and Pompey, was contaminated by the residence of Tiberius. During the reign of Honorius, the Persians made themselves masters of Rhodes. It was afterwards taken by the generals of the caliphs, in the year 647 of our æra, and retaken by Anastasius, emperor of the East. The Venetians gained possession of the island in 1203, but it was wrested from them by John Ducas.-The Turks conquered it from the Greeks. In 1304, 1308, or 1419, it was seized by the knights of St. John of Jerusalem, by whom it was retained about two centuries, and surrendered to Solyman II, on the 25th of December, 1522. On the subject of Rhodes, the reader may consult Coronelli, Dapper, Savary, and Choiseul. Rhodes exhibited to me, at every step, traces of our manners, * See Leunclavius's Treatise on the Maritime Law of the Greeks and Ro mans. The excellent ordinance of Louis XIV, on the subject of the marine, retains several clauses of the Rhodian laws. The nymph Rhodes. and memorials of my country. I found here a little France in the midst of Greece. I walked through a long street, still called the street of the knights. It consists of Gothic houses, the walls of which are studded with Gallic devices, and the arms of families that figure in our annals. I remarked the lilies of France crowned, and as fresh as if they had just come from the hands of the sculptor. The Turks, who have every where mutilated the monuments of Greece, have spared those of chivalry; Christian honour astonished infidel bravery, and the Saladins felt respect for the Coucis. At the end of the street of the knights, you come to three Gothic arches which lead to the palace of the grand master. This palace is now converted into a prison. A half ruined convent, inhabited by two monks, is the only memorial at Rhodes of that religion which there performed such miracles. The fathers conducted me to their chapel. You there see a Gothic virgin, with her child, painted on wood; the arms of d'Aubusson, the grand master, are carved at the bottom of the picture. This curious piece of antiquity was discovered some years since by a slave who was at work in the garden belonging to the convent. In the chapel is a second altar dedicated to St. Louis, whose image is met with all over the east, and whose death bed I saw at Carthage. I left my mite upon this altar, requesting the fathers to say a mass for my prosperous voyage, as if I had foreseen the dangers I should encounter on the coast of Rhodes, in my return from Egypt. The commercial port of Rhodes would be very safe, if the ancient works which defended it were rebuilt. At the extremity of this harbour stands a wall flanked with two towers. These tow ers, according to a tradition current in the country, occupy the site of the two rocks which served as a base for the Colossus. Every body knows that the ships did not pass between the legs of this statue; I mention it merely not to omit any thing. Very near this first harbour are situated the basin for gallies and the dock yard. A frigate of thirty guns was then on the stocks, and was to be built entirely of fir from the mountains of the island. The coast of Rhodes opposite to Caramania, the ancient Doris and Caria, is nearly upon a level with the sea; but the land rises |