work, because this learned botanist visited only the A. D. 1584., islands of the Archipelago, Mount Athos, and a small portion of Thrace and Macedonia. Deshayes. D'Anville, in commenting upon Deshayes, has A. D. 1695 conferred celebrity on his work relative to Jerusalem; but it is not generally known that Deshayes is the first modern traveller who has given us any account of Greece, properly so called: his embassy to Palestine has eclipsed his journey to Athens. He visited that city between the years 1621 and 1630. The lovers of antiquity will not be displeased to find here the original passage of the first Travels to Athens-for that appellation cannot be given to the letters of Zygomalas and Cabasilas. "From Megara to Athens is but a short stage, which took us less time than we should have been walking two leagues: no garden in the midst of a wood of forest trees can afford greater pleasure to the eye than this road. You proceed through an extensive plain full of olive and orange-trees, having the sea on the right, and hills on the left, whence spring so many beautiful streams, that Nature seems to have taken pains to render this country delightful. "The city of Athens is situated on the declivity and in the vicinity of a rock, imbedded in a plain, which is bounded by the sea on the south, and by pleasant hills that close it towards the north. It is not half so large as formerly, as may be seen from the ruins, to which time has done much less injury than the barbarism of the nations who have so often pillaged and sacked this city. The ancient buildings, still standing, attest the magnificence of those who erected them; for there is no want of marble, A. D. 1625. or of columns and pilasters. On the summit of the rock is the castle, which is still made use of by the Turks. Among various ancient buildings, is a temple as entire and as unimpaired by the ravages of time as if but recently erected. Its arrangement and construction are admirable; its figure is oval, and without, as well as within, it is supported by three rows of marble columns, decorated on their bases and capitals: behind each column there is a pilaster of corresponding style and proportion. The Christians of the country assert that this is the very same structure which was dedicated to the Unknown God, and in which St. Paul preached: at present it is used as a mosque, and the Turks assemble there to pray. The city enjoys a very serene air, and the most malignant stars divest themselves of their baleful influences when they turn towards this. country. This may easily be perceived, both from its fertility, and from the marbles and stones, which, during the long period that they have been exposed to the atmosphere, are not in the least worn or decayed. You may sleep out of doors bare-headed without experiencing the smallest inconvenience; in a word, the air which you breathe is so agreeable and so temperate, that you perceive a great difference on your departure. As to the inhabitants of the country, they are all Greeks, and are cruelly and barbarously treated by the Turks residing there, though their number is but small. There is a cadi, who adminis ters justice, a sherif, called soubachy, and some janissaries sent hither every three months by the Porte. All these officers received the Sieur Deshayes with great respect when we visited the place, and exempted him from all expences, at the cost of the Grand Signior. "On leaving Athens you pass through the great A.D. 1625. plain which is full of olive-trees, and watered by several streams that increase its fertility. After proceeding for a full hour you reach the shore, where is a most excellent harbour, which was formerly defended by a chain. The people of the country call it the Lion's Harbour, from a large lion of stone which is still to be seen there; but by the ancients it was denominated the harbour of Piræus. It was at this place that the Athenians assembled their fleet and were accustomed to embark." The ignorance of Deshayes' secretary, for it is not Deshayes himself who writes, is astonishing; but we see what profound admiration was excited by the view of the monuments of Athens, when the finest of those monuments still existed in all its glory. suls. The establishment of French consuls in Attica pre- French con ceded by some years the visit of Deshayes. Stochove. I conceived, at first, that Stochove had been at A. D. 1698, Athens in 1630; but on comparing his text with that of Deshayes, I am convinced that this Flemish gentleman merely copied from the French ambassador. Ant. Pacific. French Mis Father Antonio Pacifico published, in 1636, at A.D. 165 Venice, his Description of the Morea, a work without method, in which Sparta is taken from Misitra. A few years afterwards Greece witnessed the ar- A. D. 1645 rival of some of those missionaries who spread the sionaries. name, the glory, and the love of France over the whole face of the globe. The Jesuits of Paris settled at Athens about the year 1645, the Capuchins in 1658, and in 1669, Father Simon purchased the Lantern of Demosthenes, which became the place of entertainment for strangers. A. D. 1668, De Monceaux. De Monceaux visited Greece in 1668. We have an extract from his travels printed at the end of Bruyn's. He has described antiquities, especially in the Morea, of which not a vestige is left. De Monceaux travelled with l'Aisné by order of Louis XIV. The French missionaries whilst engaged in works of charity were not unmindful of those pursuits which were calculated to reflect honor on their A. D. 1672. country. Father Babin, a Jesuit, published in 1672, an Account of the present State of the City of Athens. Spon was the editor of this work. Nothing so complete and so circumstantial on the antiquities of Athens had yet appeared. Fath. Babin. A. D. 1674. A. D. 1674. M. de Nointel, the French ambassador to the Porte, passed throngh Athens in 1674; he was accompanied by Galland, the learned orientalist. He had drawings made of the basso relievos of the Parthenon. The originals have perished, and we think ourselves extremely fortunate in still possessing the copies of the Marquis de Nointel. None of these, however, has yet been published, except that which represents the pediment of the temple of Minerva.* In 1675, Guillet, under the assumed name of La Guilletiere. Guilletière, published his Ancient and Modern Athens. This work, which is a mere romance, occasioned a violent quarrel among the antiquaries. Spon detected Guillet's falsehoods: the latter was nettled, and wrote an attack in the form of a dialogue, on the Travels of the physician of Lyons. Spon now determined not to spare his antagonist; he proved that Guillet or La Guilletière had never In the atlas to the new edition of the Travels of Anacharsis. set foot in Athens, that he had composed his rhap- A. D. 1674. sody from memoirs procured from the missionaries, and produced a list of questions transmitted by Guillet to a capuchin of Patras: nay, more, he gave a catalogue of one hundred and twelve errors, more or less gross, committed by the author of Ancient and Modern Athens in his romance. Guillet or La Guilletière is consequently entitled to no credit as a traveller, but his work, at the time of its publication, was not without a degree of merit. Guillet made use of the accounts which he obtained from the Fathers Simon and Barnabas, both of whom were missionaries at Athens; and he mentions a monument, the Phanari tou Diogenis, which was not in existence in the time of Spon. Spon and The travels of Spon and Wheeler, performed in A.D. 1676. 1675 and the following year, appeared in 1678. Every reader is acquainted with the merits of this work, in which the arts and antiquities are handled with a critical skill before unknown. Spon's style is heavy and incorrect; but it possesses the candour and the ease which characterize the publications of that day. Winchelsea. The Earl of Winchelsea, ambassador from the A. D. 1676 court of London, also visited Athens in 1676, and had several fragments of sculpture conveyed to England. While the general attention was thus directed to Attica, Laconia was neglected. Guillet, encouraged A. D. 1676. by the sale of his first imposture, produced in 1676 Quiltere his Ancient and Modern Lacedæmon. Meursius had published his different treatises de Populis Atticæ, de Festis Græcorum, &c. &c.; and thus furnished a stock of materials, ready prepared for any writer |