price of his aid in rousing his superior. We now congratulated ourselves on having saved a day, and went on board, stretching ourselves on the gravel which formed the ballast in the hold of the boat, which we preferred to the cabin-the latter having all the appearance of being the abode of other inhabitants than the human beings for whom it professed to be exclusively intended.

The morn rose, fair and lovely, but, alas! with little wind, and that little against us: we were between Egina (now pronounced Egina) and Salamis, with a distant sight of the Acropolis—a noble prospect, which we could not adequately enjoy; for beside the vexation of delay, we were suffering under a dearth of provisions, and the absence of any means of personal comfortin short, we were in a sorry plight.

We tacked and tacked, and lost by every tack. At last the captain put about to go round the isle of Salamis, a detour which

BATTLE OF SALAMIS.

109

brought us close to Megara, apparently a large town; but after our experience at Corinth, I shall not venture to hazard any surmises about its interior condition. The island of Salamis is here not a quarter of a mile from the main: the communication is kept up by a ferry, where we succeeded in getting some small fishes, which in our need seemed to us delicious.

About sunset we were off Eleusis, and on the waters which had witnessed the destruction of the Persian fleet, in the battle of Salamis. The manœuvre, by

which we are told the enemy's fleet was put into confusion and the victory won, is easily understood on the spot, where the impossibility of even twenty ships working is manifest, and the confusion which the light Grecian galleys caused by the rapidity of their attack upon the crowded fleet of the Persians rendered all attempt at restoring order in so narrow a strait perfectly vain. The height on which the

haughty Persian sate was behind us, the setting sun gilding its summit; and had it not been that we were half famished, and greatly disappointed in not reaching Athens a day sooner, we should, no doubt, have exceedingly enjoyed a scene so rich with classic objects and recollections. As it was, they in a great degree compensated for the delay and hunger which we suffered.

It was dark before we entered the Porto Leone, or Peiræus, and too late for landing. The harbour was full of shipping, and among them we cast anchor, and crept below to our gravelly bed, on which we were reluctantly obliged to pass another night.

CHAPTER VI.

PEIRÆUS AND ATHENS.

[4TH AND 5TH FEBRUARY.]

AT daybreak we were up, and ready to land, long before the permission to do so was granted us. In the Peiræus, the descendants of the victors of Salamis could now boast but of two small Athenian vessels of war, while the Flag of England, a country whose very existence was unknown to Themistocles, floated on two splendid specimens of her navy, the Portland and Medea, one in attendance on each of the Gothic kings who are now the rulers of the destinies of Greece, the King of Bavaria, and his son Otho, whose name as King of

Greece, sounds in our ears somewhat unclassical-a kind of political false quantity. Russia also and France were represented by ships of war; and of merchant vessels of various nations there was a fair sprinkling.

When we landed, the business of the day had commenced, and the pack-horses were arriving from the city with their loads. We might have hired ponies to ride to Athens, but we had a kind of enthusiasm to trace and tread with our own feet the celebrated μaxpa Texn, or Long Walls; along the line of which we anticipated many interesting objects. Leaving therefore our servants to follow with the luggage, we walked through the market, thronged with buyers and sellers, on either side of which stores and public buildings of the same character as the stores were built and building. We soon arrived at a part of the road where old foundations were visible, in which we re