Col. William Leake, Travels in Northern Greece (v. 1-4)

§ 3.534 These remains mark, perhaps, the position of Halicyrna, which Pliny states to have been near Pleuron, and Strabo describes as a κωμη situated 30 stades below Calydon towards the sea. The first object which arrests the attention on approaching the remains of Calydon, is a wall of regular masonry formed of quadrangular blocks about three feet in their longest dimension, and standing on the side of a projecting hill, from which many of the stones have rolled down into the bed of a small torrent. This wall formed part of an oblong quadrangular building, inclosing all the summit of the height, which being much steeper towards the torrent than on the other sides, required in that part the support of a strong buttress, or projection from the quadrangle; this is the portion of the building which is now so conspicuous; its height is about 18 feet. As this ruin is entirely separate from the enclosure of the city, it is probably the remains of the peribolus of a temple, such edifices having often been placed on the outside of Greek cities, where, protected by their sanctity, they were left open to the use of the surrounding country. Although not a vestige of the temple itself remains aboveground, the magnitude of the peribolus, with the beauty and grandeur of the position, give the greatest reason to believe that here stood the temple of Apollo Laphraeus, which, according to the words of Strabo, would seem to have been not within but near the town of Calydon.

§ 3.535 Diana Laphraea, or Laphria, was another of the protecting deities of the Calydonii, and was worshipped perhaps in the same temple, or in an adjoining sanctuary. When Augustus founded Patrae, and peopled it in part with the inhabitants of Calydon, he directed the statue of Diana Laphraea to be given to the new colony, where it was placed in the acropolis, in a temple dedicated to the goddess, who was honoured with an annual festival, a procession, and a very cruel sacrifice. The remains of the walls of Calydon are traceable in their whole circuit of near two miles and a half; they subsist in most parts to the height of three or four feet, and are formed of the same kind of masonry as the peribolus of the temple. They included the last falls of Mount Zygos towards the river Fidhuri or Evenus, with the exception of the extreme point, which was excluded. On the western side the wall descends along the left bank of the torrent before-mentioned, until, after receiving the waters from the slopes of the city itself, through an opening made in the wall to admit their passage, the torrent changes its course from south to west, and flows parallel to the longer side of the peribolus into the plain. Between the peribolus and the part of the city wall opposite to it are several foundations. The breadth of the city was very much diminished at the southern extremity, so as to present a small front towards the Evenus.

§ 3.536 On the east the walls ascended the crest of a narrow ridge to the acropolis, in a convex form, and were protected in the steepest part towards the citadel by some short flanks. The northern front of the city crossed a ridge which connects the heights occupied by the city with the neighbouring part of Mount Zygos; in the middle of this side, on the highest part of the ridge, was the acropolis, which was well protected with towers without, and within consisted of a rectangular inclosure unequally subdivided by a cross wall. Many parts of the inclosure of the lower town are flanked by towers, and foundations of terraces are observable on the slope of the hill within the inclosure. There was a large gate on the south-eastern side of the town, and small ones in other places. I searched in vain for any vestiges of a theatre, or for any remains of civil architecture. At the foot of the ridge, the crest of which is occupied by the eastern walls, flows a small branch of the Evenus, and another waters the similar parallel valley of Potamula, which village is only half an hour to the north-eastward, but not in sight. I have taken it for granted that these are the ruins of Calydon, though it must be admitted that the writer who indicates their situation most precisely is not among the best of geographical authorities. I allude to Pliny, who says that Calydon was near the Evenus, about 7 1/2 miles from the sea, which accords exactly with this position. But he is strongly supported by probability. It is

§ 3.537 evident that the fertile plain of Calydon, over against the land of Pelops, in which fifty fields of vineyards and arable were offered to Meleager, could have been no other than that which lies between Mount Varassova and the lagoon of Mesolonghi, nor is it easy to conceive that the extensive remains at Kurt-aga are those of any less important city, placed as they are so centrally with regard to that plain, and in so commanding a situation at the entrance of the vale of the Evenus, where that river issues from the interior valleys into the maritime plain. As to the epithets which Homer gives to Calydon, it must be confessed that εραννη seems more suitable to this site than either πετρηισσα or αιπεινη, both of which would be better applied to that immense mass of

§ 3.538 rock anciently named Chalcis, and now Varassova, which rises directly in face of the ruins, on the opposite side of the river. In truth, the situation is as low as it could have been, not to be in the plain; Strabo, indeed, seems to have been sensible that the epithets πετρηέσση and αιπεινή were not very well adapted to Calydon, since he remarks that they are to be applied to the district. From the summit which rises above the ruins, the ridge of Zygos branches westward to the Aspro, and that of Apokuro northward to its union with Mount Viena, having the lake of Apokuro on its western side, and the valley of the Fidhari on its eastern. From Mount Varassova branch the great ridges of Kravari, which though like Apokuro, covered in the higher parts with forests, was well cultivated by the inhabitants of numerous Eleftherokhoria, until the country fell into the hands of Aly Pasha, since which event the population has greatly diminished, and some of the largest villages are now almost deserted. Not long ago some person informed the Pasha that the daughter of the Proestos of Megadhendhro, a village in the vale of the Evenus, 5 or 6 hours above Calydon, was a girl of extraordinary, beauty; he demanded her accordingly of the father, who thought it better to comply than to fly from the country, and abandon all his property: a few days before I arrived at Prevyza she was received into the Pasha’s harem there, and was sent to Ioannina on the Vezir’s departure.

§ 3.539 In a valley at the back of Mount Varassova, where stood the village of Perthori, now deserted, and below it Mavromati, are said to be some well preserved remains of an ancient Greek fortress. It was probably only a subordinate castle, as the towns of Chalcis and Macyneia were very near the sea shore. Admitting the ruins at Kurtaga to be those of Calydon, there can be little hesitation in considering the Pleuronia, which as I have before shown was the territory next to the Calydonia in a westerly direction, to have been that which is now attached to Mesolonghi. Having again examined the remains at Ghyftokastro, behind Mesolonghi, I find that a low rocky height, separated by a branch of the plain of Mesolonghi from the foot of the mountain of Kyrla Irini, was entirely surrounded by walls. Some parts of the masonry are constructed in the most regular Hellenic manner, and others are of narrow stones laid carelessly without cement, among which are seen some very large wrought blocks, the work apparently of a remote age. The walls seem not only to have surrounded the summit, but to have extended also over a lower height which is connected with the mountain of Kyrfa Irini, and which advances farther into the plain. I observe also the foundations of a tower or other quadrangular building at the foot of the height in the plain. I have before remarked that these are probably the ruins of the Pleuron of Homer, and that Kyria Irini was the city which the Pleuronii built on Mount Aracynthus, after the destruction of the former by Demetrius Aetolicus. It is remarkable, that among the numerous Mesolonghites, by whom I have been visited, one only has ever been at the Castle of Kyria Irini, and he probably would never have gone there, had he not accompanied an Englishman.

§ 3.540 March 26.—The Greeks of Karlili, particularly of that part of it which constituted the ancient Acarnania, enjoyed, until the time of Aly Pasha, a considerable share of security and prosperity. They had a profitable traffic in cattle and provisions with the Islands; and although the country was often infested by robbers and pirates who had a secure refuge in some of the smaller islands, the armatoli kept them in check: there was generally a good understanding between the chief Greeks of Acarnania and the Dervent-aga, and they received some advantage from Karlili having been an imperial appanage. They speak with great respect and regret of Kurt Pasha, the guardian of the Dervenia to whom Aly succeeded. In consequence of the easy circumstances of many of the Acarnanian families, education received a little encouragement, and some remains of its effects are still apparent in the manners and convenation of the natives, even in the present desolate state to which the northern part of the country is reduced. But conscious of this advantage, they affect, in the true spirit of Greek Xenelasia, to undervalue most of their neighbours. The Korfiates and Zakythini they qualify as αχρείοι and illiterate, in which they are certainly right, considering the advantages which those people have had in a Christian government.

§ 3.541 The Kefalonites they admire for πνεύμα και φιλοξενία —for wit and hospitality, but do not speak very favourably of their honesty or regard to truth. The people of Mesolonghi and Anatoliko are regarded as ψαρομυαλοΐ, or fish-brained, and θιακος, an Ithacan, seems to be a common term of contempt. The Leucadians, as a part of their own nation, are well spoken of, and I believe not undeservedly. The Mesolonghites are agreed in commendation of the conduct of Tahir Aga of Konispoli, who for the last year has been their governor. Nobody understands better than an Albanian how to conduct himself in office when there exists a control over the avaricious disposition which invariably obtains the ascendency when there is nothing to prevent it. The Vezir, wishing to act with moderation towards Mesolonghi at the beginning of his government of this place, sent purposely a person as his deputy who was suited to execute that intention, and he is now about to employ Tahir Aga, with the advantage of the reputation which he has gained at Mesolonghi in a similar mission in Kravari. Aly’s authority over Mesolonghi and Anatoliko is derived solely from his office of Dervent Aga, and his farm of the miri, six-sevenths of which he underrents yearly from some Turks at Constantinople, and has purchased the other seventh from one Saly Aga of Mesolonghi, who possessed it for life. The plain extending from Mesolonghi to Bokhori and the sea, although clayey is fertile and tolerably cultivated. Near the shore is a chain of lagoons, of which the eastern, belonging to Bokhori, is much the largest. It is valuable for its salt-work and fisheries.

§ 3.542 The greater part of the labour in the plain is performed by men of Kefalonia and Zakytho. The Kefalonites, who work in the vineyards, earn from 40 to 45 paras a day, with wine. The Zakythini are reckoned the best reapers. The chief produce of the Islands being grapes and currants, the principal harvest occurs there later than on the continent; while their small quantity of corn is reaped earlier, and thus their labourers obtain employment on the continent without losing any at home, and pay for a part of the provisions with which the continent supplies the Islands. In the territory of Bokhori the land belongs to Turks: the Greek farmers receive the seed from the landlord and pay him half the crop after the deduction of the dhekatia. March 27.—After 36 hours of a southerly wind, with rain, the weather improving, I embark to-day in a monoxylo, accompanied by six others, to convey the servants, baggage, and Albanian escort, and in two hours cross the lagoon to Aia Triadha, a small monastery situated on the extreme point of the ridge which borders the western shore of the lagoon of Anatoliko. Our monoxyla move about three miles an hour: they have large square sails, but these add very little to the velocity unless the boat is lightly laden. That in which I am embarked moves as quick with a single pole, as another full of Albanians with the sail set and two men punting: the pole, by which a man at the stem gives the motion, is about ten feet long, with three prongs at the end. The water varies in depth from one foot to four. Fish are taken, as in the livaria of Arta, by kalamotes, or chambers

§ 3.543 made of reeds fixed at the passages by which the fish pass from the lake into the sea. The kalamotes are left open from January till May 15, old style, when the water of the lagoon becoming hot or the breeding being complete, the fish begin to return to the sea, and each sort of fish having its season for returning, they are caught in this manner all the summer and autumn. The weather still continues showery and disagreeable. At 2.60 we leave Aia Triadha, and proceed along the foot of the height, on the other side of which, to the right, is the lagoon of Anatoliko. The hill is covered with olives, and adorned with all the flowers and verdure of an advanced spring, although scarcely a leaf was to be seen in the interior. To the left a watery bog extends for five or six miles in the direction of the sea and the mouth of the Aspro. Opposite to the opening which leads to Anatoliko, between Mastu and the northern extremity of the ridge which we have been following, we leave the road to Mastu and Guria on the right, and cross the plain over swamps, ditches, and marshy grounds, among which are many vineyards, to Neo Khori, on the left bank of the Aspro —a village containing 80 families, of which 30 are Turks. A portion of it is a tjiftlik of Mukhtar Pasha. Magula is a mile lower down the river, standing on a small eminence in the plain: opposite to it, on the other side of the river, is Katokhi, on a similar height at the extremity of the hills which begin about Palea Katuna and end near Katokhi. These hills are entirely separated from those of Manina by a plain which begins from the bank of the Aspro opposite to Guria, and ends in a great marsh extending to the foot of a rocky height called Khalkitza, near Petala. The complexion of the inhabitants of Neokhori shows the badness of the air; nor can it be otherwise, surrounded as the place is, in so many directions, by extensive marshes.

§ 3.544 March 28.—The Vezir haying carried away the two περατεριαίς, or ferry-boats of Katokhi and Guria, to convey his Albanians across the river at some place in the plain of Vrakhori, because the late rains have rendered the fords there impracticable, I proceed to Stamna, there to remain in a better lodging and pleasanter situation until we can devise some mode of crossing the river. Leaving Neokhori at 8.30, we follow the bank of the Aspro, and in a little more than an hour arrive at Guria, from whence, ascending the ridge of Stamna by a rugged path, we pass at 10.15 the hamlet of St. Elias, at the foot of a peaked height which is very remarkable in all directions around, and at 10.45 arrive at Stamna, where I occupy the house of the Hodja-bashi, Demetrius Tzimburaki, who is now at Vrakhori, with the other Proesti of Karlili assembled at that place to meet the Vezir, who left Stamna on the 25th and travelled to Vrakhori, all the way in his κοτζί, a clumsy German four wheeled carriage. Several of these primates are in great trepidation, fearful of the effects of the part which they necessarily took against the Vezir, when the deputy of Yusuf, the Valide Kiayassy, governed this province. Stamna, once a considerable town, now contains only 80 families; and not a fifth part of its lands, which belong entirely to Greeks, is cultivated,

§ 3.545 although it has suffered less in proportion than many places in Acarnania, from not being in the line of the most frequented communications. Its decline dates from the first Russian war, when Orloff sent hither a Kefalonite to originate a rebellion in aid of Catherine’s war with Turkey. Flags were made, under which men, women, and children assembled, to establish their liberty and independence; very soon, however, some Albanians marched against them from Vrakhori, slaughtered the men, made slaves of the women aud children, and pillaged the houses; and thus ended the epanastasis of Stamna. The lands of the larger Greek proprietors in the surrounding parts of Acarnania and Aetolia are generally worked in the same manner as the Turkish tjiftliks, by a metayer, the terms varying according to the nature of the produce and quality of the land. The land-owner makes a yearly commutation with the Turkish farmer of the miri, and on bad lands sometimes derives no advantage, but that of taking the dhekatia in kind, which is one eighth or two fifteenths of the crop. In this case the cultivator is at all the expences. Where the land is particularly good, it is common for the owner to furnish the seed, and for the cultivator, after bearing all the other expences, to account for half the crop, deducting the dhekatia. In ordinary kinds of arable a third is received by the proprietor upon the same conditions, or he supplies seed and stock and pays all the expences, the farmer contributing only his labour, and receiving a fifth of the crop after the dhekatia is deducted.

§ 3.546 In the culture of maize this mode is general in Western Greece, except that the peasant receives a fourth instead of a fifth, because the labour and attention required is greater, and the expence of seed for maize is small compared to the produce, which is generally fifty to one in the gross. The seeds on an ear of maize are from three to five hundred, and there are often three heads on one stem. A measure of 15 okes is the common proportion of seed for a strema (a square of 112 feet) of wheat, or for five stremata of rokka, as maize is here called. The only expence imposed upon the Acarnanian metayer in ordinary cases, is half the expence of threshing, called alonistiko in wheat and barley, and stumbistiko in rokka; the first being performed by horses on an aloni or threshing-floor, the latter by a stick. When maize is irrigated, the crop is seldom so good as when it is watered only by the spring rains; but it is in particular situations only on the mountains that these can be depended upon. The irrigated fields of rokka are chiefly near the river. The crop of this grain is usually followed by one of wheat, and the farmer takes the land for two years. For wheat and barley the land is ploughed twice; for rokka three or four times. Guinea-corn, or small kalambokki, is almost out of use in Western Greece; a little is sown in Lamari and Luro. Around Stamna the wheat is all grinia, giving a return of about seven to one; those who can, turn in sheep, and with that assistance, if the land is good, they have a second year of wheat, then barley, then oats, which last is considered

§ 3.547 nearly as good as fallow. It seems, however, that the two successive crops of wheat generally occur on land which has lain some time fallow; an advantage which the cultivator in Greece can generally obtain, as land is more plentiful than labour. By the same means they often change the position of their plantations of rokka on the river side, and obtain crops of wheat and rokka alternately without any manure. It is even doubted whether the change of ground be necessary, as the torrents from the mountains, and the inundation of the river, deposit fresh soil every year. Dhiminio wheat is not sown in the plains, but higher up the river where it can be irrigated, and in some parts of the mountains, where they are sure of rain in the spring, it gives fifteen to one. This grain is not thought fit for use until the January after the crop, but will keep three years: the grinia is not good beyond the year. There is a mode of preparing the land for wheat, barley, flax, and beans, with the hoe, as in Sicily, without ploughing. The hoers come from Kefalonia, provisions are furnished by the master, and are paid for by the labourer out of his share of the crop, which is half, after the dhekatla has been deducted. The produce with the hoe is more plentiful, the plough being too light for the soil, and often weighing not more than the yoke. The corn measures used here are the κάδος and καδάρα; the former is a fifth greater than the κοίλον of Constantinople, and is generally reckoned to contain 26 okes; the kadhara 15 okes. The more opulent cultivators have four or five oxen to

§ 3.548 each zevgari or plough-yoke, and consider that they can plough 60 stremata with them. The subjoined figure will show the form and construction of the plough (άροτρον, αρέτρι, or αλέτρι). The zygos, or yoke, furnished at either end with zevles, or collars, is fastened in the middle by means of a lashing and a peg, called the klidhi, or key to a piece named sivalma, the other end of which embraces that of the stovari, or beam, and is tied to it by cords. The stovari at the other end enters the aletropodha, or plough-foot, which at the upper end is embraced by and lashed to the khiroladhi, or handle. The stovari forms an angle in the middle, where it is pierced by the spathi, or sheath, which is steadied by a sfina, or peg, and at the lower end enters the aletropodha through the middle of a trifurcated piece, one end of which is tenoned into the lower end of the aletropodha, and covered with the yni, or share; the two other branches, called the ftera, or wings, serve to throw out the clods on

§ 3.549 either side as the plough advances. The zygos is 6 feet 8 inches long, and 11 inches in circumference; the aletropodha 4 feet 1 inch following the bend, and 1 foot 4 inches in circumference at the head; the stovari 7 feet 2 inches long, and 1 foot 2 inches in circumference at the sfina; the sivalma 3 feet long; the khiroladhi 1 foot 10 inches; the ftera and spathi each 2 feet 1 inch; the yni weighs 3 okes. This is the plough drawn by oxen, for buffalos the dimensions are larger, or at least the share is heavier, weighing 5 okes. The construction is the same in every part of Acarnania and Aetolia, or at least with little variation. At Makhala the wings are two separate pieces of iron inserted into the sides of the aletropodha. The vukendro is a pointed stick, near seven feet in length, to goad the oxen. My absent host, who has the reputation of being one of the few Proesti in Karlili that do not plunder their districts, has in consequence of his moderation no more than 500L a year out of a considerable landed property, which income is farther diminished by the Vezir’s demands upon him. He keeps only two men and two women servants, has no glass to his windows, and only one room tolerably furnished. The mode in which the Vezir put to death the two brothers Katziko-Ianni, who lived at Plaghia, opposite to Lefkadha, furnishes a good example of Albanian policy.

§ 3.550 He had long been on apparent terms of friendly intercourse with them, but amidst which there was strong mistrust on their part. One brother at a time had often visited him when he came to Mytika; he was convinced that little would be gained by destroying only one of them, and they were aware of the danger there would be in both placing themselves in his power. At length by bribery and promises he persuaded them to carry off from Lefkadha the family of a Greek captain of armatoli, who was a refugee with the Russians, and to deliver these captives to him. By this action they lost their credit with the Russians. The Vezir then called Bekir Aga, the commander of my Albanian escort, who relates the story to me, and who is usually called from his love of gaming Bekir Giocatοr. Bekir is of Berat, and left the service of Ibrahim Pasha for that of Aly, bringing with him 200 men, half from Berat and the rest from Kolonia and other places. The Vezir suddenly ordered Bekir to Karlili, telling him, that if he did not succeed in destroying the Katziko-Iannis, he had better drown himself in one of the lakes. Upon receiving this command, Bekir sent a messenger to Plaghia, informing the Katziko-Iannis that he had a commission from the Vezir against one Captain Ghiorgaki, an enemy of theirs, and requesting them to meet him and concert measures accordingly. Kitzo (Khristos) the elder of the brothers, fell into the snare, but not without having taken the precaution to write to his brother, desiring him to remain at some distance, that they might not both meet Bekir Aga together.

§ 3.551 Bekir, who had foreseen this, laid his plan so well that he intercepted the letter. Kitzo, as soon as he saw his brother, exclaimed, “Why did you neglect what I said? we are both lost!” and so it turned out. The Vezir immediately wrote to the Russians, making a merit of his having chastised the men who had had the audacity to carry off the family of a person under their protection, and who had often committed depredations on travellers passing through the channel of Lefkadha; which in fact they had done. Two years ago the Vezir took a famous Vlakhiote captain of robbers, Katz-Andonio, one of the greatest of the Kleftic heroes, and the subject of many a song. He ordered him to name the persons from whom he had received encouragement and presents. Andonio very coolly named all the Vezir’s enemies, including the Russians, with whom the Turks were then at war. The Vezir knew that the robber was rich, and offered to spare his life for a share of his wealth, but without any effect upon him, as he knew Aly too well to trust to his promises. The Vezir then ordered his legs to be broken, which was done in the most cruel manner, in the midst of a crowd of Turks, whom Andonio abused all the while, saying they would not dare stand so near him if his legs were still whole, and joking with a relative who was suffering the same torture close by. Bekir lately accompanied a Frenchman, by order of the Vezir, to collect cattle from the villages, in payment of a debt due by the Pasha for jewels, which having been assigned to the government, or commissary of provisions at Corfu, the

§ 3.552 garrison was to be supplied in this manner with beef. The Vezir obliged the Proesti to guarantee his payment of the cattle to the owners, allowing the former to deduct the amount from their accounts with him. Between the two, the poor owners of course are in a bad way. St. Elias, two miles to the southward of Stamna, is distinguished from the tjiftlik of the same name on the left bank of the Aspro, opposite to Palea Mani, by the name of St. Elias at the Almond-trees. Here I find an ancient cistern, shaped as below in the vertical section, and covered within with a coat of stucco. The pointed height which rises above St. Elias commands an extensive and interesting prospect. The mountain of Tragamesti, and Mount Bumisto terminate the view to the northward; to the right of the latter appears Lygovitzi, the ruined mill above Makhala, and the whole course of the Aspro upwards to the site of Stratus. From Petala to Mesolonghi are spread the maritime plains, marshes, and lagoons, beyond which appear Kefalonia, Zakytho, and Elis. To the eastward the mountains of Zygos impede the prospect, and particularly the height of the Panaghia, which rises from the plain at the head of the lagoon of Anatoliko, leaving nothing seen of the interior of Aetolia, except the summits of Mount Viena. All on this side of the height of Panaghia is named Kato-Zygos, on the other Apano-Zygos. On a projecting point of the Stamna ridge, half-way between Mastu and the Aspro, are the foundations of a fortified κωμη, nearly of the same size as those at Skortus and Prodhromo.

§ 3.553 April 1.—Return to Neokhori, and from thence visit Magoula, a name often attached, as in the present instance, to a small height in a plain, and therefore wherever it occurs a likely place to find antiquities. But there are no such appearances at this Magoula. It is a village of 30 houses, belonging to Yakub Bey, of Vrakhori, who takes a third of the crop, and makes an allowance for the seed, all the other expences being borne by the cultivators. Wheat and rokka are the only produce of the lands. The eminence upon which the village stands is half a mile distant from the left bank of the Aspro and commands a view of the plains and marshes towards the mouth of the river. Kurtzolari and Oxia are conspicuous in that direction, the latter immediately to the left of the mouth of the Aspro, the former a little farther to the left; Mesolonghi, the castle of Patra, and Mount Varassova, are also seen from Magoula. Kurtzolari is a high peaked mountain falling into small hills which form a promontory opposite to Oxia, and which on the land side border the Acheloian plain. To the north-west, the heights reach nearly to the mouth of the river; at the opposite end are some marshes and lagoons which extend with small intervals of plain to the western

§ 3.554 extremity of the great lagoons of Anatoliko and Mesolonghi. Cattle feed upon the mountain, but with the exception of two or three kalyvia there are no habitations nearer to it than Magoula. In the plain near its eastern extremity is a deserted convent of St. John. The Kaloghero who manages its property resides at Magoula. The Protoghero points out to me a place on the last slope of the nearest part of Mount Kurtzolari, where stands a quadrangular Hellenic ruin, about the size of one of the houses in his village: the wall remains in some parts to the height of six feet. He knows of no other Paleo-kastro in that direction. The plain around Kurtzolari and Magoula, as well as that of Katokhi, on the opposite bank of the river, furnishes pasture to a great number of cattle; 5000 might easily be purchased here at a short notice: they fatten especially on the young shoots of the reeds in the marshes of Katokhi and Trikardho. It is the custom to set fire to these reeds in the summer, which causes a plentiful supply of young shoots soon afterwards. Young oxen are broken in for the plough by tying them by the horn to the old oxen when two years old, and thus allowing them to range about: whenever the young one is inclined to be frisky the old one corrects him with his horn. When fit for labour he is worth a hundred piastres; the expeuee of his board and education is about 20 piastres. A cow: or ox for slaughter is sold from the pasture to the Islanders for 35 piastres. The cow yields six or seven okes of butter a year, only producing it for about three months: a buffalo cow yields 30 okes

§ 3.555 of butter, and sells for 80 piastres; a buffalo for labour 150 piastres; a buffalo skin for 40 or 58 piastres; the skin of a large full-grown ox 15 piastres. Butter 100 paras the oka. The people of Magula have the care of the greater part of the cattle to the left of the river, those of Katokhi to the right: the monastery of Ai Ianni possesses 70 oxen. A Maguliote, describing to me the bad air of the place in summer, said, “When you wake in the morning your head is so large,” holding his hands at some distance from his ears, as a poetical mode of describing the waker’s sensations. They believe that Katokhi and Neo-khori, especially when the wind is southerly, are less unhealthy, and that: the excessive heat of Magoula is caused by the hill being of gypsum, but of which I saw no appearance.

§ 3.556 April 2.—The Skaloma at the mouth of the Achelous is known by the name of Salitza, or Great Salitza. A boat which I had sent for to Mesolonghi had advanced so far on its way to Katokhi, when a quarrel ensued among the boatmen, and they returned to Mesolonghi. I had just sent some persons to drag up to Neokhori another boat which had arrived at Salitza; when the regular ferryboat unexpectedly made its appearance, having been sent down by the Vezir, as soon as he had crossed the river yesterday at Lepenu. At length, therefore, we are enabled to pass over to Katokhi, where we lodge in the house of the Proestos, which commands a view down a long reach of the Achelous. The bed of the river is here 400 yards in breadth, and now quite full of water, though there has not been any rain even in the mountains since the 27th, and the sky has been without a cloud, with land and sea breezes in regular alternation, as usual near the coast in summer. Katokhi contains 100 families, and was once undoubtedly a place of greater importance, having a large ancient church of St. Pandeleemon, which is said to have been built by Theodora, wife of Justinian. On a rock in the middle of the village stands a tower with very thick walls, apparently of the same age as the church. A sepulchral stone, forming part of the altar in the church, is inscribed with the name of Phormion, the son of Thuion, in characters of the best Hellenic times. April 3.—Four miles to the westward of Katokhi is Trikardho, or Trigardhokastro, the modern name of the ruins of a large Hellenic city, which was undoubtedly Oinia, or the city of the Oiniadae, that place having been situated near the mouth of the Achelous, on the frontier of Acarnania towards Aetolia, opposite to the promontory Araxus, and to that part of the Peloponnesus which was inhabited by the Dymaei, all which data will agree with Trikardho.

§ 3.557 The city occupied au extensive insulated hill, in no part very high, now covered with a forest of velani oaks, and which is half surrounded on the northern and eastern, which are the highest sides, by a great marshy lake, called the lake of Lesini, or Katokhi. In the opposite direction the height throws out a low projection towards the Achelous, which, making a long semi-circular sweep round it, approaches nearest to the height on the western side. As at Calydon the lowest point of the hill was excluded from the walls, which formed a narrow inclosure at that extremity, and presented a very short front towards the river. The entire circuit of the fortification still exists, following the crest of the height on the eastern and northern side, where it falls abruptly to the marsh, but to the westward leaving a considerable slope on the outside. At the highest or north-eastern point of the inclosure, a piece of wall with an adjoining tower subsist to the height of 20 feet.

§ 3.558 The former has not a single rectangular stone in it; most of the polygons are equal to cubes of 2 1/2 and 3 feet, and the beauty and accuracy of the workmanship are admirable. Westward of this point, the inclosure falls towards the marsh, which extends from hence 5 or 6 miles north-westward to Mount Khalkitza, a rocky, steep, and woody mountain, which separates these plains from the valley of Tragamesti. Next occurs, proceeding in the same direction, a small gate in a retired angle of the walls, leading to a large cavern in the rocks at the foot of the walls full of water, very clear and deep, but which, the sides of the cavern being perpendicular, is inaccessible. My guide from Katokhi shows it to me as one of the cisterns of the ancient city, and adds that there is another on the opposite side of the hill. An inexhaustible cistern it certainly is, but entirely the work of nature. From hence the great marsh is seen extending for ten miles in the direction of Khrysovitzi, where it reaches the hills, which are a continuation of the mountain of Lygovitzi, and which unite westward with Khalkhitza, the mountain already mentioned. About two thirds of the distance from Trikardho to the eastern end of Khalkitza rises a rocky island resembling the hill of Trikardho, and equally covered with trees and bushes. On another insulated hill near the northeastern extremity of the marsh, two or three miles from Palea Katuna, stands the monastery Lesini, which gives name to the lake. This island contains vineyards, and the monastery has monoxyla for communicating with the shore, where are its herds, flocks, and cornfields.

§ 3.559 The marsh is so full of reeds that the water is scarcely anywhere apparent from Trikardho, except at the foot of the hill itself, where from some large deep pools issue several streams, which, joined by others from the northern part of the marsh, form a large river flowing into the sea at Petala, and which thus supplied a most convenient water communication from the excellent port of Petala up to the very walls of the city. Beyond the cistern the walls are extant only a few feet above the ground, and the heights are not much above the level of the marsh. Having followed them for a short distance, we arrive at what is called, and I believe justly, το λιμάνι, or the port, the deep water reaching from hence to the sea at Petala. The annexed delineation represents the form of the walls in this part. Those marked a a a are of polygonal masonry; but the towers b b are more regular, particularly the larger, of which the outer face is 26 feet long, and still subsists at one angle to the height of 35 feet.

§ 3.560 It consists of nine regular and equal courses of masonry of two feet and a half each, between the ground, and a narrow projecting course, which was perhaps at half the height of the tower when it was complete. In the middle of the face of the tower all above the projection has fallen, but towards the angle the courses which completed the tower above the projection remain. These courses are not so regular or equal, as those below the projection. But the most remarkable part of these works is the gate at c, which led from the port to the city, and terminated an oblique passage through the wall eight feet long, at the end of which there was a further length of one foot ten inches, where a projection on one side of the passage corresponded to a retiring on the other. Though the passage is ruined, and the gate half buried, the elevation of the upper part of the latter is perfectly preserved, and is one of the most curious ruins in Greece, as it shows that the Greeks combined the use of the arch with that of polygonal masonry. The opening is ten feet six inches in width; the arch semicircular, or nearly so, and composed of nine stones one foot ten inches in thickness, of unequal breadth, but having concentric junctions. There is not the least reason for supposing this arch a posterior addition or repair to the surrounding walls. The upper and under sides of the stones on either side of the opening below the arch are indeed horizontal, which gives the gate a less ancient appearance than the rest of the work; but in polygonal masonry, the angles of the towers, when they occur, which is not frequently, as well as the passages, are generally so constructed: with this exception, all the stones in the gate or near it are either trapezoidal, or have

§ 3.561 five or a greater number of unequal sides. About five feet above the top of the arch a quadrangular window, formed by three stones, crowns the ruin, the wall on either side of it having fallen. As this window seems to have been made to give light to the passage, there was probably another similar gate and window at the other end, and the passage perhaps was arched throughout, the soffit of the existing arch being oblique conformably to the direction of the passage. At d the rock is cut perpendicularly. In one place above this natural substruction, which is ten feet high, a part of the constructed wall remains, formed of five or six-sided stones mixed with irregular quadrangles, fitted to the rock and to one another, with so uniform a surface, and a junction so perfect, that at a little distance it is difficult to perceive where the wall ends and the rock begins. In another place where the excavated rock is higher, several parallel constructed masses of masonry project from the rock, having the appearance of buttresses; but as no support could have been wanted to such a substruction, the intervening spaces were perhaps receptacles for boats. One of these masses has detached itself bodily from the rock, against which it was built, and lies upon the ground below. Having quitted the port, my guide conducts me through the woods of velani to the remains of a theatre which stood near the middle of the ancient city, and commanded a view towards Kurtzolari and the mouth of the Achelous. It is difficult to determine its exact dimensions or the

§ 3.562 original number of seats, but the diameter at the orchestra appears to have been about eighty feet; there are some foundations of a proscenium projecting forty-five feet, and twenty-five rows of seats still exist cut out of the rock. The ruins and woods of Trikardho are singularly picturesque, and the fine figures and dresses of the Albanians, as they scramble over the ruins or wind through the woods, furnish most appropriate accompaniments to the scenery. The subjoined sketch will give some idea of the situation if not of the exact form of the city, of which it is impossible to obtain a general view in consequence of the continual obstruction of the trees and broken ground.

§ 3.563 At a there is a small door crowned with a semicircular arch formed of five stones, and still lower towards the plain I remarked another door, which, although formed equally on the principle of the arch, has the curve on one side flatter than on the other. Near it is another door, the top of which is formed in the common Hellenic manner, with straight converging sides crowned with a single stone. The walls in general are from eight to ten or eleven feet thick, filled up in the middle with rough materials and an abundance of mortar. In many parts they form curved instead of right lines, having few towers, but many short flanks; peculiarities which prove the great antiquity of those parts of the work, and lead to the belief that the towers where they exist have been a subsequent addition to the original fortification: an opinion which is also supported by the regular masonry of the towers, and in some places by the mode in which they are connected with the walls. The general use of towers would naturally be accompanied with straight and with longer lines of wall, and evidently belonged to a more advanced stage of the art of defence than that in which curves, or broken lines, or short flanks were used. All the towers which I observed are closed at the back, and project a little from the line of wall within. The lower part of the inclosure towards the Achelous seems in general of a later date than the walls on the upper parts of the hill. The circuit appears to me about equal to that of Calydon, and not quite so great as that of Stratus.

§ 3.564 Oineia is one of those cities the name of which always occurs in history under that of the people, or Oiniadae. Their coins of copper, which bear the head of the tauriform Achelous, and the legend ΟΙΝΙΑΔΑΝ, in the Doric dialect, are found in great numbers in the surrounding parts of Greece. The position of Oiniadae comprehended the chief requisites of a Greek city: a plain and lake abounding in the necessaries and luxuries of life; with a height strengthened by that lake, by marshes, and by two rivers, which afforded an easy communication with two points of the coast, at a distance sufficient to leave no fears of surprise from the sea. Compared with such advantages, insalubrity was a consideration of little weight with the Greeks, as many of their ancient sites attest in Asia, Greece, and Italy. In some instances, undoubtedly, the abandonment of the soil has caused the malaria, to which drainage and cultivation were anciently a remedy. But it seems impossible that the marshes of Oiniadae could have been drained to any great extent, such is their depth and magnitude. Placed on the right flank of the great line of defence which the Achelous afforded to the Acarnanes against their formidable neighbours of Aetolia, and of which Stratus protected in like manner the left, Oiniadae was of immense importance to the Acarnanian κοινόν, though its situation at the extremity of that province, in an angle of the maritime plain the greater part of which belonged to Aetolia, and possibly the influence of some possessions on the Aetolian side of the river caused it sometimes to

§ 3.565 be politically dissevered from Acarnania or even in alliance with the Aetolians. Twenty-three years prior to the Peloponnesian war, Oiniadae resisted Pericles, who attempted to reduce it with a small Athenian squadron from Pagae in the Megaris, and who appears to have been induced to attack it as being the only city in Acarnania which was adverse to the alliance formed soon afterwards between Athens and Acarnania. Its policy was the same in the third year of the Peloponnesian war, when Phormion with the Athenian fleet from Naupactus, made an incursion into Acarnania for the purpose of ejecting the adverse party from Astacus, Stratus, and some other towns, but was deterred by the season from making any attempt upon Oiniadae, which in winter was too well protected by its marshes and inundations. In the following year, his son Asopius, having summoned all the Acarnanes to his assistance, sailed up the Achelous towards Oiniadae with twelve ships from Naupactus; but his expedition had no other result than that of laying waste the territory. It was not until the eighth year of the war that the city was compelled by the other Acarnanes, assisted by the strong fleet which Demosthenes then commanded at Naupactus, to join the Athenian alliance. When the Aetolians had increased their power by the addition of the country afterwards called Aetolia Epictetus, they became too powerful for the

§ 3.566 Acarnanes, and having taken Oiniadae they expelled the inhabitants, and treated them with such cruelty that they were threatened with the vengeance of Alexander the Great, who was diverted however by more important affairs from ever executing his menace. Under his successors Oiniadae continued to be weak; for Diodorus informs us that in the year B.C. 314, when Cassander marched into Aetolia to the assistance of the Acarnanes, and held a council with them on the river Campylus, in which he recommended them to abandon their minor fortresses and retire into Agrinium, Stratus, and Ithoria, the Oiniadae took refuge in the last of these places. In process of time the Aetolians obtained possession of all the frontier towns of Acarnania, and retained them until they were liberated by Philip son of Demetrius, in the first year of the Social War B.C. 219. At that time Stratus, Phoeteiae, Metropolis, and Oiniadae, were all in the hands of the Aetolians. Philip, after having taken Ambracus in the marshes of Ambracia, marched by Charadra to the Strait of Actium, which he crossed at Prevyza. Continuing his march through Acarnania, during which he was joined by 2000 Acarnanian infantry and 200 cavalry, he took the city of Phoeteiae by capitulation after a siege of two days. On the following night he captured or slew 500 Aetolians, who were marching to the relief of the place in ignorance of its having fallen, and then

§ 3.567 moved into the Stratice, where, encamping upon the Achelous at a distance of ten stades from Stratus, he laid waste the country, without meeting with any resistance. From thence he marched to Metropolis, and having burnt that city, which the Aetolians abandoned on his approach, retiring into the citadel, he then crossed the Achelous, at a distance of twenty stades from Conope, in the face of a body of Aetolian cavalry, who retreated into that city as soon as his infantry had forded the river. The king next attacked Ithoria, a fortress strong both by art and nature, and which stood exactly in his road. The garrison deserted the place as he approached, upon which he levelled it with the ground, giving direction also for all the other castles in the neighbourhood to be destroyed. Having passed the Straits, he met with no further opposition, and could permit his army to supply itself at leisure with every thing which the country afforded. In approaching Oiniadae he took Paeanium which was well built, but only seven stades in circuit; and having totally destroyed it, floated down the materials to Oiniadae. On his approach the Aetolians retired into the citadel but soon deserted it, upon which Philip took possession of the place, and from thence marched into the Calydonia, where he reduced a certain fortress named Elaeus, which Attalus had

§ 3.568 recently strengthened and stored for the use of the Aetolians. After having ravaged the Calydonia, Philip returned to Oiniadae, where he made use of the materials which he had brought from Paeanium to fortify the citadel and arsenal, and to unite the whole in one inclosure. But before he had completed this work, intelligence of a threatened irruption of the Dardani into Macedonia induced him to return home. In the year B.C. 211, Oiniadae was taken by the Romans, under M. Valerius Laevinus, and given up, together with Nasus (perhaps Petala), to the Aetolians, who were then their allies, but it was taken from them and restored to the Acarnanians 22 years afterwards, by the conditions of peace, which were dictated by the senate of Rome at the close of the Aetolian war. From the slight resistance made by the Aetolians to Philip, and his subsequent fortifying of the city, it would seem either that the old Acarnanian fortress had not been very strong, or that the Aetolians had very much neglected its repairs. The harbour which Philip undertook to join to the city when he was interrupted by the news from Macedonia, was probably on the Achelous, near the metokhi of Panaghula, for the narrow inclosure of this part of the town advancing towards the river, seems to indicate that the Oiniadae had a navale in that situation. It is scarcely possible to conceive

§ 3.569 that that which is now called the limani, although it had a water communication with the harbour of Petala, could have been the place intended by the historian, as it is immediately under one of the strongest parts of the height, which could not have been excluded from the original fortress, and where the work bears evidence of a remote antiquity. Thucydides in asserting that Oiniadae could not be besieged in winter on account of the marshes, caused by the inundation of the Achelous, seems to afford support to his own opinion as to the rapid accumulation of soil at the mouth of this river, since although the present season is nearly that in which the waters are at the highest, there is nothing to prevent an army from marching from Katokhi, and investing the walls in more than half the circumference, whence it would appear that the surrounding plain is more elevated now than it was in ancient times.

§ 3.570 The increase of soil, however, cannot be so rapid as the ancients imagined; indeed, it is obviously slower than at the mouths of many other rivers of Greece. Strabo describes Oiniadae as 70 stades above the mouth of the river, which is more than the distance of Trikardho from thence in a direct line; and Pausanias, who wrote six centuries after the Athenian historian, shows the failure of the earlier predictions as to the Echinades, by his remark that they were not yet joined to the continent, which he absurdly endeavours to account for by the desolation of Aetolia. But it is evident that Thucydides was not very well acquainted with the locality. He supposed the marshes around the city to have been caused by the Achelous alone, and takes no other notice of the great expanse of lake or marsh on the northern side of Oiniadae, which is permanent, which afforded a much greater protection to the city than the Achelous, and which has no connection with that river, being formed entirely by subterraneous springs, and by superficial torrents from the hills, and having an outlet to the sea by a river totally separate from the Achelous. Herodotus goes so far as to state, that half the Echinades had been united to the mainland by the Achelous. The only heights however near the coast, which have any strong appearance of having undergone this change are, one which is

§ 3.571 separated by a narrow harbour from the island of Petala, and that of Kurtzolari, similarly situated with respect to Oxia, between which and the southern foot of Kurtzolari is the port of Skrofes, so named from three rocks near the shore, and which is well sheltered from the west by Oxia. There cannot be much doubt that Kurtzolari is the ancient Artemita, which the poet Rhianus couples with the islands Oxeiae, and which Artemidorus, Demetrius of Scepsis, and Pliny, attest to have been a peninsula in their time During two thousand years, therefore, the coast has undergone little change, for Artemita is a peninsula as it was then, and Oxeia, though separated only from the shore by a strait of half a mile, is still an island. The plural form of Thoae in Homer, and that of Oxeiae, which

§ 3.572 continued to the latest period of antiquity, and is even now employed to comprehend Vromona and Makri as well as Oxia, may possibly have had its origin in the fact of Kurtzolari having once been an island, though it so much resembles an island from the offing, and is so exactly of the same form and nature as the neighbouring Oxia, that they were naturally coupled together in the nomenclature of mariners, and the expression νήσοι Όξείαι may easily have obtained, although one of them was a peninsula. Strabo in stating, without any accompanying remark, the conflicting opinions of Artemidorus and Apollodorus, who wrote about a century before him, as to some of the places on the Aetolian coast, leaves great reason for supposing that he had not himself seen this part of the country. It is not surprising, therefore, that although he may have been generally well informed as to the names and order of the places on or near the shores of Acarnania and Aetolia, he has failed in a more precise description of them. This in particular is observable with regard to the lakes which form so remarkable a feature of the coast near the mouths of the Achelous and Evenus.

§ 3.573 Of these lakes he distinguishes four:—1. Melite, or the lake of Oiniadae, which was 30 stades long and 20 broad. 2. Cynia, which was twice as much both in length and breadth. 3. Uria, which was considerably smaller than either. 4. A large lake near Calydon, belonging to the Romans of Patrae. He adds, that Cynia communicated with the sea, but that Melite and Uria were separated from it by land half a stadium in breadth. There are many difficulties in applying this description. In the first place, Melite, or the lake of Oiniadae, which we cannot suppose to be any other than that of Trikardho, or Katokhi, is much larger than Strabo asserts, and in his order of places from west to east, it ought to have occurred before instead of after the Achelous. Again, if we suppose the large lake near Calydon to have been that of Bokhori, and consequently the lagoon of Anatoliko to have been Cynia, and that of Mesolonghi Uria, the dimensions which Strabo assigns to Cynia will indeed be tolerably correct, but Uria ought to have been described as much larger instead of smaller than Cynia. Or if we suppose the lagoons of Anatoliko and Mesolonghi, which in fact are but one lake, to have been the Cynia, and Uria to have been the lagoon of Bokhori, Strabo's dimensions of Cynia will then be not half the reality; and where in that case are we to look for the lake of Calydon? Upon the whole, setting aside the numbers as being always the most questionable part of the ancient texts, and as relating in this instance to dimensions which may possibly have changed since the time of Strabo,

§ 3.574 I am inclined to believe that the marsh of Trikardho was Melite, the lagoon of Anatoliko Cynia, that of Mesolonghi Uria, and that of Bokhori the lake of Calydon, which belonged to the Romans of Patrae, and which is mentioned by the gastronomic poet Archestratus as producing the labrax in great perfection. It was the same perhaps as the Onthis which Nicander connects with Naupactus Rhypaion and a lofty mountain. The island of Doliche, which Strabo supposed to be the Dulichium of Homer, appears to be the same which now bears the synonymous appellation of Makri, or Makry, derived from its long narrow form; for it lies exactly as Strabo describes Dolicha, opposite to Oiniadae and the mouth of the Achelous, though its distance from the promontory Araxus is almost the double of that which he states. The march of Philip to Oiniadae throws some light on the relative situation of several Acarnanian towns. Phoeteiae, the first which he took, seems evidently to be the same place which in the text of Thucydides is written Phytia. When Eurylochus, the Spartan, whose movements from Delphi through Locris to Proschium in Aetolia I have before had occasion to refer to, moved from the latter place towards Amphilochia,

§ 3.575 he crossed the Achelous to the left of Stratus, passed from the territory of Stratus into that of Phytia, then by the frontier of Medeonia into the district of Limnaea, from whence he entered the Agrais. As Stratus was the only city which the Acarnanes had not abandoned, it is highly probable that Eurylochus left it as far on his right as he conveniently could; in this case his route would exactly lie through the valley in which the ruins at Porta are situated. Supposing, therefore, Limnaea to have been at Kervasara, we may infer from this passage of Thucydides, that the city which stood at Porta was Phytia (Phoeteiai), and the ruins near Katuna those of Medeon. And this situation of Medeon accords with the occurrence of its name in history on two other occasions.

§ 3.576 In the year B.C. 231, the Aetolians having subdued several towns in Acarnania, but having failed in persuading the Medeonii to join them, laid siege to Medeon, and had reduced it to great distress, when they were suddenly attacked by 5000 Illyrians, sent in ships to the coast near Medeon by Agron, king of Illyria, from whom they had been hired by Demetrius II. king of Macedonia, for this purpose. Landing at break of day, either at Lutraki or at Kervasara, they attacked the Aetolians, and assisted by the Medeonii, defeated them with great slaughter, taking their camp, arms, and baggage. The other occurrence which illustrates the position of Medeon has been already referred to. It happened in the year B.C. 191, when Antiochus marching from Naupactus by Calydon and Lysimachia to Stratus, there met the Aetolians as well as his own army, which had crossed Aetolia from the Maliac gulf. He then proceeded to bring over the Acarnanes, and to attack those who refused to join him. He surprised Medeon, and from thence moved forward to Thyrium, but retired upon hearing of the arrival of the Roman fleet at Leucas. It is probable that Metropolis occupied the hill of Lygovitzi, for the march of Philip seems clearly to show that Metropolis was to the right of the Achelous, nearly opposite to Conope. This situation of Metropolis, therefore, accords with those of Phoeteice at Porta, of Stratus at Surovigli, and of Conope at Anghelokastro.

§ 3.577 The steepness and altitude of the hill of Lygovitzi explains the king's disinclination to lose any time in attacking the Aetolians, when they retired into the citadel after having abandoned the town, and the ordinary ford of the Achelous was exactly in his way from thence to Conope. Ithoria having stood below Conope in the στενά, or straits of the Achelous, which were formed on one side by the extremity of Mount Zygos, and on the other by the heights and forest of Manina, probably stood at or near St. Elias, nearly opposite to the ruined town at Palea Mani; I have been informed, indeed, that some vestiges of a Hellenic fortress actually exist at St. Elias. Paeanium I conceive to have been the ancient site between Mastu and the Aspro. Although Polybius does not remark that Philip recrossed the Achelous between Conope and Oiniadae, it is evident that he must have done so, Oiniadae having been upon the right or Acarnanian bank of the river, and the Macedonians having, as Polybius distinctly asserts, crossed it between Metropolis and Conope. But the historian is equally silent as to a third passage of the river, which was unavoidable when Philip proceeded from Oiniadae to the Calydonia. The Achelous below Katokhi flows for the distance of two miles in the direction of Kurtzolari, and then takes the turn towards Petala, in which it approaches Trikardho; from thence it again bends towards Kurtzolari, and joins the sea about two miles to the north of Oxia and the entrance of

§ 3.578 the channel between that island and Kurtzolari. The plain which extends from Trikardho to the sea, consists of fertile soil, and though not marshy, except in some places near the shore, is very little cultivated.

§ 4.001 CHAPTER 34 ACARNANIA APRIL 3, 1809, continued.—Having descended from Trikardho into the plain of the Aspro, we proceed to a mill two miles distant from the ruins, which is turned by a derivation from the river flowing from the marsh of Trikardho. In summer this river is said to contain nearly as much water as the Achelous, as its sources never fail.

§ 4.002 Finding an Ithacan boat at the mill, we engage it to carry us to the port of Petala, sending thither by land the horses and as many of the palikaria as the boat will not contain. After dining at the mill we descend quickly with the wind and stream for about four miles, when a calm ensues, followed by a heavy fall of rain with furious gusts of wind at intervals. Our boat having grounded at the mouth of the river, we are conveyed in monoxyla to the island of Petala, which in the middle is separated only from the main land by a narrow channel connecting two harbours, both of which are well sheltered by the island, but have in no part a depth of more than six feet. The river of Trikardho discharges itself into the northern harbour: in the southern the boat is lying which I had ordered from Mesolonghi to convey me to Tragamesti; but such is the violence of the gale, that although the wind is quite favourable, the boatmen will not venture even to pass through the narrow channel uniting the two bays, still less to proceed to Tragamesti. We are obliged, therefore, to submit to be devoured by the fleas in the hut of Hassan Aga, son of Yussuf Arapi, the Vezir’s Hasnadar, who commands sixty Albanians placed on the island by the Vezir to prevent its occupation by the Kleftes, who were in the habit of making incursions from hence into the neighbouring country. Hassan treats us hospitably as the friends of his master, giving us fish and lamb for supper, and excellent Ithacan wine which he has obtained by levying contributions of it from the boats which put in here.

§ 4.003 His hut, dignified with the name of a kula or tower, is twelve feet square within, and serves for every thing but a kitchen, which among Albanian soldiers is generally sub dio. His palikaria occupy two other huts of the same size, but formed only of heaps of stones covered with branches, in which they all assemble when the weather is bad: when fine, they repose on the lee-side of screens made of branches supported upon rough posts, and which may easily be shifted according to the wind. The Aga’s hut alone is tiled. The men consider themselves in luxury, having fish from the harbour for the trouble of catching it, and bread gratis from the villages. Hassan complains that in summer the air is unhealthy, and the winged insects very troublesome; but adds, that gnats, the worst of all, are seldom seen after June, the place being too dry for them. Petala consists almost entirely of rugged rocks, having small intervals of soil which are covered as usual in such situations in the winter and spring with a luxuriant growth of herbage, and a great variety of succulent or aromatic shrubs. On the summit are some velani oaks, and wild olives, and on the western side of the island a few fields which were cultivated by the Ithacans until Aly Pasha occupied the island. A series of low swampy islets borders the main coast opposite to Petala, extending from a narrow strip of low land which separates the marsh of Trikardho from the sea to the heights which rise from the northern side of the mouth of the Achelous over against Kurtzolari.

§ 4.004 April 4.—We sail in the Mesolonghite boat in four hours to the Skaloma of Tragamesti, vulgarly Dragamosti, passing between the Echinades and the Acarnanian coast, in which, about midway, is the harbour of Platia, or Pandeleimona. The wind without is southerly, but near the shore a calm prevails. The Echinades may be divided into three clusters: the Dhiaporia in face of Platia, the Dhragonares to the westward of these, and the Modhia to the southward. All the larger produce corn; Pondiko, Provati, and Dhragonara, which last is the largest of all, have kalyvia on them. As at Petala, wild olives abound, some of which on Dhragonara have been grafted by Mr. Zavo of Ithaca, who owns the island. Platia is a beautiful little bay with a narrow entrance, having a muddy bottom at a depth in most parts of twelve or fifteen fathoms. On the summit of a hill rising from the harbour are the walls of a Hellenic city, which I take to have been Astacus, as Scylax and Strabo concur in showing that Astacus was the chief maritime city and harbour northward of Oiniadae, near the Echinades. The bay of Tragamesti is five or six miles long, by one in breadth, and would be much exposed to the

§ 4.005 south-west, which is the direction of its length, were it not for the shelter afforded by the Echinades. The mountain Velutzi slopes steeply to the northwestern shore with a straight coast line. There is said to be a depth of 15 orghies, or fathoms, within 200 yards of the skaloma, or magazines, which stand on the beach at the extremity of the bay. Here is a rough mole, where several boats of Kefalonia are now lying detained by their fear of the Maltese privateers and an English brig which is cruizing off Mesolonghi. Finding horses at the Magazines, I proceed to the village of Vasilopulo, distant six miles, and the residence of K. F. Hodja-bashi of Tragamesti, Vasilopulo, and Lutziana, three villages occupying lofty situations on the northern side of the valley. Vasilopulo is near its extremity. Tragamesti, the largest, stands just under the summit of Mount Velutzi, and Lutziana is about half a mile from the magazines at the head of the bay. There are not more than 100 families in the three villages; the boundary of the district follows the crest of the surrounding mountains, except to the S.E., where it extends to the marsh of Trikardho. From the head of the bay the valley turns eastward and then northward, in which direction it is separated from the valley of Bambini by the mountains which are a northerly continuation of Mount Khalkitza. Between Lutziana and Tragamesti, below a monastery of St. Elias, distant a mile from the sea, a root of Mount Velutzi projecting into the valley was the site of the town or fortress which

§ 4.006 possessed the district of Tragamesti as well in Hellenic times as at a subsequent period: it is separated from the steeps of the mountain by a small hollow, and is surrounded towards the plain as well as on the two other sides by cliffs about thirty feet high. The remains consist of walls of mortar and rubble, erected upon Hellenic masonry of a species almost regular, but which in one place only has preserved so many as five or six courses, where it forms part of a large inclosure in the interior of the later work. Near it are the ruins of a large church, within which a smaller one has been built. At the angle of the fortress towards the sea are the remains of a tower, coeval apparently with the ruined church, and built upon a high rock. The entire hill is covered with wild almond-trees mixed with a variety of odoriferous shrubs in all their vernal beauty. On the northeastern side of the ancient site, at the foot of the cliffs, a stream of pure water issues from the rocks, just below which are some ancient foundations. A little lower flows a torrent which rises at the head of the valley, and on its opposite bank stands a modern church surrounded with ancient foundations and sepulchres. The Hellenic town was probably Crithote; for Strabo describes Crithote as a πολίχνη, of the same name as a promontory, and places the latter, together with the Echinades, between Alyzia, which was near the modern Kandili, and Astacus, next to which southward was Oiniadae; whence it

§ 4.007 seems evident that the promontory Crithote was that remarkable cape at the western entrance of the bay of Tragamesti, now called, as well as the mountain at the foot of which the Hellenic remains are found, Velutzi. Possibly it may be thought that the long bay of Tragamesti, so remarkable a feature of the Acarnanian coast, and the fertile valley at its head, are themselves indications that here stood the principal town of this part of the coast, which certainly was Astacus. But it is to be observed, that such a bay was not so well adapted, by its great depth of water and want of shelter, to ancient navigation as Platia; and that Scylax expressly notices the harbour of Astacus. The vale of Tragamesti is well cultivated: its productions are wheat, vines, but principally maize, for which they are now ploughing or harrowing. The land intended for this grain is twice ploughed, then harrowed, then ploughed again, sown, and again harrowed. The harrow is formed of branches of trees roughly put together, and drawn by oxen driven by a man who stands upon the harrow. The three villages being Kefalokhoria, the Greek proprietors pay an eighth to the Vezir besides vostina. My host K. has a landed property of between 400 and 500£. a year, and gains about as much more, not very righteously I fear, as Hodja-bashi. Being ostentatious, and very like a Turkish governor, his house is built and fitted up in the Turkish style, covering a considerable space of ground, and having three or four

§ 4.008 large rooms, without any comfort. I find him much alarmed, as well as the Hodja-bashi of Zavitza, who is with him, by a recent declaration of the Vezir that he will make them responsible for the conduct of all the robbers who are natives of their districts. Among other complaints against His Highness in this part of the country, is that of his having raised the duties upon the exportation of provisions from his territory to the islands. That upon an ox which was one piastre is now 85 paras, and the kadhos of corn formerly paying six piastres now pays 28. The air of Tragamesti is considered healthy; a natural consequence of the valley being free from marshes, surrounded by dry mountains, and open to a free ventilation by the imbat of the bay. Mount Velutzi, which bore perhaps anciently no other name than that of the town at its foot and of the promontory, in which it terminates, is more woody beyond the villages than on its maritime side, and contains red deer in abundance: on the hills at the head of the valley the fallowdeer and roebuck are found: the woods consist chiefly of oaks of a kind suited to knee timber, and rendered doubly valuable by the facility with which they may be transported to the head of the bay of Tragamesti. The hills on the south-eastern side of the valley, as far as the marsh of Oiniadae, including Mount Khalkitza, are covered with the velani oak.

§ 4.009 April 5.—The southerly wind with rain continues. In the afternoon, the sky clearing a little, we set out at 12.40 for Bambini, notwithstanding the pressing remonstrances of our host Kyr Κ., who, finding us determined to proceed, adds to our escort a few Albanians who are under his orders, in consequence of his having received advice yesterday of the thieves having made an excursion from Kalamo and killed two Albanians. The hedges of the cultivated fields abound in the shrub called azoiri or vromoklari, a kind of vetch, which takes the latter name from its stinking leaf. Beyond the valley we enter an opening in the hills immediately opposite to Vasilopulo; it is bordered on either side by a thick wood of oak of different species, among which is the prinokokki or kermes; mixed with them is the daphne in full bloom, and the usual proportion of lentisk, one of the commonest of Grecian shrubs. The white orchis is in blossom, as well as many other natives of England, which do not flower until Midsummer. The common oak here is only in bud, though a fortnight ago the leaves of some large oaks round an old church near Calydon were already opened. Having crossed the hills, we descend into a valley which extends to the heights of Lygovitzi and Manina. Both here and farther down to the south-eastward the vale consists entirely, except around Khrysovitzi and Prodhromo, of a forest of oaks; some of these are large trees with short

§ 4.010 crooked stems. The velani is not so plentiful as on the hills. Having turned to the left we skirt the foot of the heights for a mile or two, and arrive at Makhera, once a considerable village, as its ruins declare, but now reduced to eight or ten families. Here begins the fertile basin which is surrounded by the Lygovitzi mountain, the ridge of Makhala, and those of Bambini and Khrysovitzi. Having remained at Makhera from 2.50 to 3.18, we follow the slope of the hills, and halt, at 3.50, for the night at Bambini, where I lodge in the house of the priest, which is very little distinguished from the other huts of the village either by comfort or cleanliness. The house of the Proestos, which is somewhat larger, happens to be occupied by some wounded Albanians returned from fighting with the thieves. The Bolu-bashi, who was troublesome at the beginning of the journey, has since returned with signs of penitence, and has behaved like all the escort, with great regularity and discipline. Three or four in particular, who are Toshke from near Berat, are always in front, and if any steep rock or other place affording a good look-out occurs, there, as soon as we come in sight of it, they are sure to be seen, or to be heard by the discharge of their musquets, should they have any apprehension of their activity being unnoticed by us: some of them might have contended in swiftness of foot with Achilles himself. Others are teleboae, or βοην αγαθοί, famous for their voices, for which quality Aly Pasha himself is noted. It is not, however, the loudness of bawling, or the power of running over a given space in the shortest time that the Albanians seem to consider, but the more useful arts of making themselves understood when speaking at a great distance, of clambering over difficult roads, and of making long journeys on foot with rapidity. Another accomplishment on which the Albanian values himself is that of distinguishing objects at a great distance.

§ 4.011 April 6.—From Bambini to the Paleokastro of Porta is a ride of three quarters of an hour. The monastery called the Panaghia of Porta is founded upon a part of the ruined walls of an ancient city, which incircle the summit of an irregular height, rising from the middle of the vale which is inclosed by Mount Bumisto, the ridge of Makhala, or Katuna, and the mountain of Lygovitzi. The walls are mostly of the polygonal kind, and defended by short flanks instead of towers, except on the lower side towards Makhala, where they are best preserved, and where, as I remarked from Makhala, a tower of regular masonry subsists to half its original height. A little above it, an ancient reservoir, about 15 feet square, still serves to contain the waters of a spring which rises there, and which marks perhaps the site of the agora of the ancient city. Around the source formerly stood a modern village named Pistiana. Within the Hellenic inclosure are many foundations of ancient buildings, and the steeper parts of the hill still preserve the terraces, into which it was anciently divided, and which are now separated from each other by bay trees of the most luxuriant growth.

§ 4.012 The monastery is large, but contains no remains of Hellenic sculpture or architecture. Below the lower side of the height towards Makhala, a fertile bottom belonging to Bambini is covered with vineyards, which produce yearly 800 barrels of wine, of 50 okes the barrel. The hill of Porta separates the valley of Bambini from that of Aetos, so called from a deserted village on the foot of Mount Bumisto, opposite to which, in the direction of Porta, a pointed hill, attached to a low ridge, and crowned with the ruins of a castle of the lower ages, also named Aetos, rises from the middle of a valley which is inclosed around by the mountains Bumisto and Skafidhia, by the hill of Porta, and by the ridge of Katuna and Konopina. Moving from Porta at 9.40, we proceed in the direction of Katuna, through the valley just mentioned, which every where, except under Katuna and Aetos, is uncultivated, and covered chiefly with the wild pear, one of the commonest trees in the uncultivated plains and valleys of Greece. At 11.8 we halt below the monastery of St. Nicolas of Aetos which stands upon the lowest heights of the ridge, attached to the castle peak. It contains nothing curious. The palikaria having reposed a little, we proceed at 11.50 through the woods, and at 12.50 make our meridian halt where the trees become thicker, the wild pears being mixed with oaks, with an underwood of the paliuri, and other common shrubs. Although this place is not four miles in a straight line from Katuna, it requires an hour and a half to reach that village, as we soon lose our path among the bushes.

§ 4.013 April 7.—The following is some account of a part of Acarnania, which the Kleftes have not allowed me to see, derived from my travelling companions or from the intelligent family of Mavromati, with whom I am lodged. The distance from Katuna to Zavitza is reckoned 3 hours; the road from the ascent of Aetos to Zavitza is along the steep rocky side of Mount Bumisto, and very rough. Zavitza stands at the opening of a hollow, between the mountains Bumisto and Skafidhia, and looks down upon the bay of Vulko or Kandili, which is separated by a narrow strait from the northern end of the island of Kalamo. From a mill on a height half a mile to the south of Vathy, in Ithaca, I saw Zavitza through the channel between the islands Kalamo and Kastus. Half an hour below Zavitza are two ancient towers, complete with battlements; they stand on either side of the gorge, and anciently defended a pass leading from Zavitza into the maritime plain; an hour farther, on the sea-side, upon the point of Mytika, which’ divides the bay into two parts, are the remains of a building of Roman brick-work. This and another point of the bay are about as far from the nearest corresponding points of the eastern end of Kalamo as Prevyza is from Punta in the widest part. The Paleo-kastro of Kandili is the name given to the ruins of a Hellenic city, situated above the village of Kandili, and about an hour from the sea.

§ 4.014 From the bay of Vulko begins the steep rocky uninhabited slope which borders the sea northward from thence for 3 hours as far as Zaverdha, which lies at the foot of a very steep cliff of the same mountain on the edge of the great plain which extends to Bogonia and to Kekhropula, and is separated only by a very low ridge from that of Vonitza. The greater part of this fertile district, which was formerly the profitable possession of Greeks of Lefkadha, is now uncultivated. Zaverdha is half an hour from the sea-side, and an hour from Bogonia, at the opposite angle of the gulf from whence begins the mountain which extends to the lagoon of Vulkaria, and upon which stand the villages of Plaghia and Peratia, overlooking the channel of Lefkadha. Kekhropula is an hour and a half from Bogonia, about due north. Sklavena was a large village situated on the mountain northward of Zaverdha. Between it and Zavitza was a plain called Livadhi, possessed by Sklavena, and by Varnaka. To the southward of the bay of Vulko, as far as Cape Velutzi, the shore is scarcely less steep and forbidding than to the northward, but is indented with several small creeks or bays, of which the most frequented is named Stravolimiona; from the station, near Vathy in Ithaca, before-mentioned, it lay exactly in a line with the southern extremity of Kastus. There can be little doubt that the ancient remains in the valley of Kandili are those of Alyzia, which various authorities show to have been a maritime town of Acarnania, and on this part

§ 4.015 of the coast. The distance of the bay of Kandili from the ruins of Leucas, near Amaxikhi, corresponds with the 120 stades which Cicero assigns for the distance between Alyzia and Leucas, and not less so the 15 stades placed by Strabo between Alyzia and its harbour, called the port of Hercules, with the interval between Paleokastro and Mytika, which latter was probably the situation of that Heracleium, from whence a certain Roman was tempted, by the deserted state of the place, to carry away some choice works of Lysippus, representing the labours of Hercules. In the year B.C. 374 the bay of Alyzia was the scene of a naval victory gained by 60 Athenian ships, commanded by Timotheus, against 55 Lacedaemonian, under Nicolochus, on which occasion the historian relates that Timotheus retired after the battle to Alyzia, where he erected a trophy: that the Lacedaemonians having been reinforced by six ships from Ambracia, again offered him

§ 4.016 battle, and that when Timotheus refused to come forth, Nicolochus erected a trophy on one of the neighbouring islands. The word εγγυτάτω, by which Xenophon indicates the proximity of the island to the shore, applies exactly to Kalamo, the ancient name of which was Carnus, as appears from Scylax, confirmed by the authority of Stephanus and Artemidorus. Kalamo and Meganisi being the two largest of the minor islands of this coast, and both belonging to that cluster which Strabo distinguishes from the Echinades, and denominates the Islands of the Taphii, and more anciently of the Teleboae, it seems to follow, if Kalamo was Carnus, that Meganisi was Tophus, or Taphius, as it was called, in the time of Strabo. Alyzia being placed in the valley of Kandili, it becomes an almost necessary consequence that the plain of Zaverdha was that of Thyrium, this having been the principal city in the northern part of Acarnania, as its coins and several occurrences in ancient history, concur in attesting, and the plain

§ 4.017 of Zaverdha and Bogonia being the largest and most fertile in Acarnania, unless it be that of Oiniada. That Thyrium was adjacent to the outer sea, and not near the Ambracic gulf, is apparent from several authorities. In the year B.C. 373 the Thyreatis was invaded by Iphicrates, and again by the Aetolians in the year before the beginning of the Social War, on both which occasions the hostile fleet was in the outer sea. Again, Cicero in navigating from Alyzia to Leucas touched at Thyrium for the sake of recommending his beloved Tiro to a citizen of the name of Xenomenes, and having remained two hours, prosecuted his route to Leucas, where he arrived on the day following that on which he had quitted Alyzia. It is evident from this circumstance that Thyrium could not have been far removed from this part of the Acarnanian coast; whether there are any remains sufficient to fix its position, at Zaverdha, Bogonia, or any other position on the shore of that bay, I am unable to learn. When Antiochus, in the year B.C. 191, had taken Medeon, he advanced against Thyrium, but some Roman ships having arrived at Leucas, and the Thyrienses having determined upon resistance, the king of Syria made no farther attempt upon that place,

§ 4.018 but leaving garrisons in the reduced towns, retired from Acarnania. Two years afterwards, during the siege of Ambracia by the consul Fulvius, some Aetolian envoys proceeding thither from Stratus, were intercepted by the Acarnanians and sent to Thyrium. Although these occurrences furnish no great illustration of the situation of Thyrium, they are at least conformable with the respective situations of the places mentioned, on the supposition that the Thyreatis was the valley of Zaverdha. There were two other ancient towns on the western coast of Acarnania between Leucas and the Oeniadae. Their names were Palaerus and Sollium. Strabo, who takes no notice of Thyrium, perhaps because it was deserted after the compulsory migration of its inhabitants to Nicopolis, names Palaerus as occurring between Leucas and Alyzia. It occupied perhaps the valley of Livadhi, situated between those of Zaverdha and Kandili. Sollium was a colony of Corinth, and as such was taken in the first year of the Peloponnesian war by the Athenians, who particularly made choice of the Palaerenses, as the people to whom they delivered the place and its territory, from which we may perhaps infer that the people of Palaerus were friends of those of Sollium, but not their next neighbours, who in Greece were not often on friendly terms.

§ 4.019 It would seem likewise, that Sollium had a harbour, for in the sixth year of the war, Demosthenes, proceeding with the Athenian fleet from Leucas to Aetolia, here conferred with the Acarnanians. With these circumstances, there is no situation which can better accord than the small port of Stravolimiona, which, situated midway between the bays of Kandili and Tragamesti, is so placed that the district of Alyzia was interposed between it and Palaerus, while the relative position will be found equally to agree with the circumstance of Astacus (at Port Platia) having been besieged and taken by the Athenians in the first year of the war immediately after they had occupied Sollium. In the afternoon we return to Lutraki and Balimbey—a delightful ride through forests of timber-trees mixed with underwood and flowering shrubs, where the beautiful scenery of the Ambracic gulf, lighted up by the clearest sky, is constantly in sight, or concealed only for such short intervals, as just serve to enhance the effect of its re-appearance. On the road we receive intelligence of the thieves having advanced last night to the number of sixty, and shot a negro who frustrated their design of setting fire to the village of Balimbey.

§ 4.020 April 8.—This morning, reinforced by Kyr K.’s guard of armatoli from Vonitza, and with others from Balim-bey, we proceed, between forty and fifty strong, to Ai Vasili, a village in a lofty situation on the northern slope of the mountain of Pergandi: the ascent to which from Balim-bey is through thick woods of oak: the distance one hour and a half. It happened, that when the armatoli stationed at Ai Vasili first perceived our advanced Albanians, the latter were observed to be without capots, which, the morning being hot and the ascent steep, they had thrown upon the horses: some were seen driving two or three lambs, which we had purchased for them; others by accident were setting a large dog to pursue the cattle, all which circumstances were considered characteristic of Kleftes. Taking us for thieves, therefore, the armatoli turned out, to the number of sixty, and without further ceremony fired a volley at the foremost of our escort, who, supposing it possible that the thieves might have got possession of Ai Vasili in the night, proceeded to act as against an enemy. They divided and crept through the woods in very good Yager style upon the flanks of the supposed enemy; and the firing continued for some time before the two parties recognized one another: the situation of the place was exactly calculated to render the scene interesting and picturesque, and a few wounded trees were the only casualties. Ai Vasili is at present nothing more than a church of St. Basil, and a quadrangle of cottages with a house for the Subashi standing on one side of a small level, which is separated by a deep ravine from the mountain of Pergandi. In the opposite direction towards the gulf is an irregular slope descending to an elevated vale, below which are the heights lying between the capes Gheladha and Volimi. The level at the village was the acropolis of an ancient city, the town-walls of which,

§ 4.021 chiefly formed of polygonal masonry, are visible in many places among the woods which cover the mountain, and might probably be traced in their entire circuit of near two miles. In the wall of one of the houses of Ai Vasili is a stele of hard Acarnanian limestone, inscribed in twenty-one lines with the names of various officers, both civil and sacred, but without the name either of the city over which the former presided, or of the deity to whose worship the priests were attached. One of these, however, having been μάντις or prophet, and another αυλητής or flute-player, they would seem to have been in the service of Apollo, which accords with an inscription found by Meletius at Ailia, or St. Elias, a monastery between this place and Vonitza, and which records the erection of a statue of Hercules in the temenus of Loxias or Apollo.

§ 4.022 After remaining at St. Basil during the mid-day hours we set out for Vonitza. The captain of armatoli, on taking leave, wishes me an ασπρον πρόσωπον, or white face, a compliment borrowed from the Turkish. He has lately lost a son, killed in battle with the robbers, and is himself still suffering from a slanting gun-shot wound through the breast. We descend the mountain through a beautiful scene of corn-fields situated amidst copses of bay and groves of handsome oaks, and having passed the elevated valley above-mentioned, reenter the forest, which here consists entirely of oaks. We fall into the lower road, or that by which I approached Vonitza on the 19th June, 1805, a little above the ancient foundations on the hill of St. Elias. Having again passed these, we descend into the valley, cross it, and arrive at Vonitza in three hours from Ai Vasili. In the middle of the wood I saw the body of a horse which had been shot last night by the robbers: the owner, a poor man of Vonitza, who was going into the woods to procure some lambs for to-morrow’s feast of Λαμπρή, or Easter-Sunday, was also killed by them. The same party robbed some men going to Lefkadha, but these escaped with the loss of their baggage and of 500 piastres in money.

§ 4.023 It is unfortunate that neither the inscription at Αι Vasili, nor that reported by Meletius, afford any clue to the name of the city, of which they are the records, the ancient authors having left this question in great uncertainty. There is, indeed, notice of the places on the Acarnanian side of the Ambracian gulf by Scylax and Pliny, but neither of them can implicitly be relied upon: Scylax from the corruption of his text; Pliny in consequence of his well-known negligence or deficient information, of which he gives a sufficient proof in representing the Acheron and Aphas ( Aous ) as discharging themselves into the Ambracic Gulf. Nor does either author name as many cities as the ruins attest to have existed. The vulgar reading of the passage in Scylax is as follows: Μετά δε Άμβρακιαν Ακαρνανία εθνος εστι και πρώτη πόλις αύτόθι Αργος το’Αμφιλοχικόν καί Ευριπος καί Ούριτόν εν τφ Ίκονιω καί εξω του Ανακτορικού κόλπου, Άνακτόριον καί λιμην Ακτη και πόλις Λευκας καί λιμην. Instead of Ευριπος καί Ούριτόν εν τω Ίκανιω, Gronovius proposed to read Έχίνος καί θύριαν iv τω Ίονίω; and the emendation is strongly supported by Pliny, whose words are, “Acarnaniae oppida Heraclia, Echinus et in ore ipso colonia Augusti Actium, cum templo Apollinis nobili, ac civitate libera Nicopolitana. Egressos sinu Ambracio in Ionium excipit Leucadium littus.” If therefore the emendation be correct, the two authors concur in supporting the opinion, that Thyrium was near the exterior or Ionian sea, and in showing that Echinus was either at Vonitza or Ai Vasili,

§ 4.024 supposing Kervasara to have been Limw Bay and Agios Petros Anactorium. The order of names in Pliny would tend to place Echinus at Vonitza, but I am more disposed to believe that Ai Vasili was its site. From Stephanus and the poet Rhianus, whom he quotes, it is evident that Echinus was an Acarnanian town of some importance: the story attached to it shows that it was one of the early colonies of this coast, the ruins at Ai Vasili indicate a remote antiquity, and their safe position on a mountain removed from the sea is in conformity with that which is generally found in the early foundations of the Greeks. In this case Vοnitza is probably the site of one of the numerous towns named Heracleia, and which has not been noticed by any author except Pliny. There still remains another Hellenic ruin in the northern peninsula of Acarnania for which a name is wanted— namely, that of Kekhropθla. Perhaps it may have been Myrtuntium; for although Strabo describes only a λιμνοθάλαττα, or salt-water lake, situated between Leucas and the gulf, which exactly agrees with the lagoon of Vulkaria, the town which stood upon its margin may very possibly have borne the same name. The temple of Apollo mentioned in the inscription of Meletius stood perhaps on the conspicuous round summit which rises from the south-eastern shore of the bay of Vonitza, where I observed foundations, this being such a situation as the Greeks often chose for their temples, not far removed from the walls of the town to which it belonged, and so placed as to be seen to the greatest advantage from the gulf and surrounding country. April 9.—We sail this morning in one hour and a half from Vonitza to Prevyza, and arrive at daybreak, choosing this early hour partly for the sake of the gulf wind, which generally blows till about eight o’clock, and is then succeeded by a calm, and about 11 a.m. by the sea-breeze, but chiefly that the boatmen may have all the day to themselves—this being Easter Sunday, the holiday which of all others is the most religiously kept by the Greeks, not more by their attendance at mass, than by eating, drinking, and dancing.

§ 4.025 April 20.—The remains at Akri or Punta consist of the following objects. Near the ordinary landing-place opposite to the middle of the town of Prevyza, and about half way between the northern extremity of the peninsula of Punta and the kula at the entrance of the harbour of Prevyza, are the foundation and a small part of the walls of a large quadrangular building, which seems to have had an open square court in the centre. One side measures about 90 yards, and the other (parallel to the shore of the harbour) about 130; the breadth between the outer and inner walls is 15 yards; the wall is two feet thick, built of small stones with much mortar.

§ 4.026 The stones are roughly squared, and placed in the wall with the angles upwards. The ground occupied by the court within has been excavated in every part for the sake of the materials, which have been used in new constructions at Prevyza. When the ancient building was ruined the walls seem to have fallen inwards. Parallel to these foundations, about the middle of the narrow peninsula, are the remains of walls constructed in the same slight manner as the former, inclosing a space not less than 500 yards in length, and about half as much in breadth; they include part of the quadrangle of the tjiftlik of Punta, together with all the southern side of some entrenchments attached to that building, which the Vezir threw up across the peninsula when he was at war with the Russians in Lefkadha. Between the tjiftlik and the northern extremity of the peninsula, fragments of columns and wrought stones have been found, and many coins were brought to me on the spot, which had been turned up in the cultivated grounds of the farm. But the most important monument, and which has been brought to light since my visit to Prevyza in 1805, is an inscribed marble, now lying in an orange garden belonging to the Turkish dwelling-house of the tjiftlik where it was found. The inscription, which contains some Doric forms, is a record of Proxenia granted by the community of the Acarnanes to Agasias son of Olympion of Patrae, and to two Romans, Publius and Lucius Acilius, sons of Publius Acilius.

§ 4.027 It is preceded by the names and titles of the principal officers of the Acarnanian κοινόν, among whom the priest of Apollo Actius takes the lead. There were two other decrees on the same stone, but of these the commencement of each line only is preserved. In one of them, a strategus, who was of Oiniadae, was named in place of the priest of Apollo. The characters are at the latest of an early period of the Roman Empire, and it would seem from the association of two Romans with a man of Patrae, that the Augustan colony of Patrae had already been established. The cities mentioned as forming part of the Acarnanian league show that the boundary of the province towards Aetolia extended to the Achelous, or exactly as Strabo describes Acarnania in the reign of Augustus. As it was not until that emperor had pacified and given laws to the world that the boundaries of the provinces of Greece, were established with any practical effect, or that a common council of the province was likely to have had much authority, I can

§ 4.028 hardly conceive the monument to be older than Augustus. There can be little doubt that it was deposited in the temple of Apollo, where we know. that even before the time of Augustus the people of the surrounding country met to celebrate a coronary contest and which, like the other hiera of Greece, was probably the ordinary place of deposit for all documents important to the general interests of Acarnania. But doubtless its institutions had fallen into partial neglect when Augustus bestowed his favours upon Actium. It is remarkable that none of the nearer cities are named in the inscription, but that the officers of the Acarnanian community are from Alyzia, Astacus, Phoetiae, Metropolis, and Oiniadae: but this accords also with the date which I have attributed to the monument, the cities of the Ambracic gulf having been nearly, if not entirely, deserted on the foundation of Nicopolis. The evidence of this monument would hardly have been required to prove the site of Actium, had not so great an authority as D’Anville placed Actium at or near Aghios Petros, where the ruins are found which I have supposed to be those of Anactorium. It would seem ffom D’Anville’s map, that he had heard of those ruins, and that he had been told that the place was called Azio, which alone would be a strong reason to induce him to conclude that it was the site of Actium,

§ 4.029 or rather of the plain, grove, and naval arsenal; for as Strabo states these to have been at the foot of a height on which the temple stood. D’Anville probably supposed the building itself to have occupied the summit of the promontory of which the extremity is called Kavo Panaghia, and which forms with the opposite Cape named Skara, at the end of the peninsula of Skafidhaki, the inner entrance of the gulf. It follows also of necessity, that D’Anville excluded the πρόκολπος, or gulf of Prevyza from the Ambracic gulf, and applied that name only to the great interior basin. It cannot be denied, in support of these opinions, that the λόφος, or height upon which Strabo states the temple to have stood, seems to answer much better to the summit between St. Peter's and cape Panaghia than to the low peninsula of Akri. But in other respects the testimony of Strabo is adverse to D’Anville’s opinion, for he confines the breadth of the strait to ‘a little more than four stades,” a number which we cannot consider erroneous, as it agrees with the four of Scylax, the less than five of Polybius, and the 500 paces of Pliny; whereas the inner strait is considerably more than a mile in breadth.

§ 4.030 Every other ancient evidence entirely favours the opinion that St. Peter’s was the site of Anactorium, and Akri that of Actium, and the same is confirmed by the nature of the ruins at St. Peter’s, which are those of a Hellenic polis or fortified town; whereas Actium, though improperly designated as a polis by Stephanus and Mela, was nothing more than a hieron of Apollo on a cape in the territory of Anactorium, which Augustus enlarged, and to which he added a naval arsenal. There can be little doubt that both Thucydides and Polybius, by the mouth of the Ambracic gulf intended the strait of Prevyza; nor does it appear that the ancients had any separate appellation for the ante-gulf of Prevyza. Scylax, indeed, speaks of the Anactoric gulf, but he applied this appellation to the greater gulf, by all other authors called Ambracic, and even excluded

§ 4.031 from his Anactoric gulf both Anactorium and Acte. Dio describes Actium as a temple of Apollo, which fronted the mouth of the strait of the Ambracic gulf, over against the harbours of Nicopolis; he adds that the strait was of an equal breadth for a considerable distance, and that both within the strait and before it there was great convenience for anchoring and for manoeuvring ships. It is obvious that such a description cannot with truth be applied to the inner strait, but that it accords perfectly with the strait and harbour of Prevyza, and that the creeks of Vathy correspond to the harbours of Nicopolis. The words of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Pliny, and Mela, are all better adapted to the outer than to the inner entrance, and it is impossible to conceive that Cicero, in coasting from Patrae to Leucas and

§ 4.032 Corcyra, should have touched at Actium, if it had been so far out of his route as the inner strait. As to the modern name Azio, its form betrays its Italian origin, and proves that it arose from an opinion which the Venetians, or Greco-Venetians of Prevyza, Vonitza, and Santa Maura, have adopted without inquiry, and which having been conveyed to D’Anville, was placed by him as a fact upon the map, from which it ought to be expunged as having no real existence. The old charts of Greece are full of erroneous names, similarly introduced by Italian seamen or others, and which are generally unknown to the Greek natives of the places. In the present instance the error was the more easily propagated in consequence of the preservation of the ruins at Aios Petros, while the greater part of those at Akri were probably consumed in constructions at Prevyza, at an early period of its existence. The effect of the great naval battle fought here was first to raise Actium to importance, while Anactorium became a small commercial dependency of Nicopolis, and afterwards when both were deserted, to maintain the name of Actium in all its fame, while that of Anactorium was forgotten. It is needless to remark, that the question of the position of Actium is chiefly interesting in its reference to that celebrated naval engagement, the result of which placed all the civilized world

§ 4.033 under one monarch, and riveted its chains for ages, at the same time that it diffused peace, opulence, and security, over extensive countries from whence they had long been banished. Although no description of this event by an eyewitness or cotemporary has reached us, the particulars of it, as well as the circumstances which preceded and accompanied it have been described by a Greek author, whose long employment in the highest offices of the Roman State gave him the means of obtaining the best extant information on the subject, and who appears to have been very cautious in admitting the facts which were reported to him. As soon as Caesar Octavianus (says Dio) had crossed over from Brundusium to the Acroceraunia, and had disembarked his land forces there, he proceeded with his fleet to Corcyra, and from thence to port Glycys. He then advanced to the straits of Actium, in the hope that some of the followers of Antony would join him, but finding no appearance of such a movement, he retired to the place where Nicopolis stood in the time of the historian. His anchorage therefore would seem to have been in port Comarus, now the port of Mytika.

§ 4.034 Here he was joined by the land forces which had marched through Epirus from the Acroceraunia. He then fortified a neighbouring hill, which embraced a prospect both of the outer sea at Paxi, and of the inner or Ambracic gulf, as well as of the parts between them, in which were the harbours of Nicopolis, a description which cannot be applied to any but the height rising immediately from Nicopolis to the northward, on the summit of which stands Mikhalitzi. Thus placed, he had a commanding view of the enemy's position, as well as the means of blockading Actium both by land and sea. He fortified his position by walls extending to port Comarus, which seem to have been in the nature of long walls, for the purpose of preventing any interruption to the communication between the camp and the fleet. The Antonians had built towers on either side of the strait’s mouth; that is to say, on the nearest points of Prevyza and Punta, and they occupied the channel itself with their ships. Their camp was on one side of the strait, near the temple of Apollo, on a level spacious ground; but which was fitter, according to the historian, for a battle

§ 4.035 than a camp, and where they had suffered from sickness both in summer and in winter. Antony, who was at Patrae, when he heard of the arrival of Caesar, proceeded instantly to Actium, and after some delay, employed in collecting his troops, and in exercising them against the enemy, he crossed the strait (to Prevyza), and pitched his camp near that of Caesar, sending his cavalry at the same time round the gulf, and thus menacing his adversary on all sides. Soon afterwards, however, Agrippa, chief commander of the Octavian fleet, took Leucas, overthrew Nasidicus in a naval battle, and occupied Patrae and Corinth, while Marcus Titius and Statilius Taurus defeated the Antonian cavalry, and brought over Philadelphus, king of Paphlagonia, to the cause of Caesar. Cn. Domitius also, offended with Cleopatra, having deserted to the enemy, such a combination of adverse occurrences inspired in Antony a general distrust of his followers, with fears for the ultimate event. The following were the circumstances which, according to Dio, led immediately to the naval battle:—Agrippa had left L. Aruntius with a few ships in observation of the fleet of Antony, when Sosius, one of the chiefs of the latter, judging the opportunity favourable during the absence of Agrippa, advanced early one morning against the observing squadron at a moment when a thick

§ 4.036 fog enabled him to conceal the superiority of his force. Aruntius fled, but Sosius in the pursuit falling in with Agrippa, was slain, together with Tarcondimotus, king of Upper Cilicia. It happened at the same time that Antony, returning from Thessaly, where he had been watching the motions of Q. Dellius, who soon afterwards deserted his cause for that of Octavianus, was defeated by an outlying body of Caesar’s army. These misfortunes induced Antony to retire and join his principal camp on the other (or eastern) side of the strait, and to hold a council on the question, whether he should fight in his actual position, or moving elsewhere, protract the war. By the advice of Cleopatra, it was resolved, that after having garrisoned strongly the most important places, she and Antony should return with the remaining forces to Egypt: but that avoiding any appearance of a retreat, in order not to discourage their allies, the fleet in moving should advance as if intent on battle. The number of Antony’s seamen having been much diminished by desertion and sickness, he selected his best ships, burnt the remainder, secretly embarked all his most precious property, and addressed a speech to his army, in which he reminded them of his superiority in the number, magnitude, and strength of his ships, as well as in the numbers of his land forces and seamen, of

§ 4.037 the abundance of his pecuniary supplies and other resources, not forgetting an advantageous personal comparison of himself with his opponent, and showing, that after having defeated the enemy’s fleet, they should be enabled to shut up his army as it were in a small island, and thus starve them into a capitulation. Octavianus, in a similar address, ridiculed Antony as an effeminate Egyptian preparing for flight, and many of whose followers were well disposed to change sides; after which, having pointed out some of the advantages of his light vessels, he proceeded to place on board of them a large force of infantry, as the best practical means of obviating the effects of the greater size and weight of the adverse ships. Antony drew out his fleet a little before the entrance of the straits, formed a close line, and advanced no farther, although Caesar made a movement in advance, with a view of either drawing the enemy out, or obliging him to retire. Having failed in this attempt, Caesar then caused either wing of his line to advance, as if with the intention of circumventing both the enemy’s flanks, and in this manner was successful in obliging Antony to move forward and engage. In the Antonian fleet there were few triremes; the greater part of it consisting of ships having from four to

§ 4.038 ten banks of oars, and furnished with wooden turrets, from which the troops fought as from a fortress. The only safe mode of assailing such floating castles was by attacking them successively, and without remaining long enough near any to suffer much from the missiles, still less to allow the Antonians to grapple, which they attempted to effect. On the part of the latter, the seamen and rowers were most efficient; on the other side the troops of embarkation. The engagement had thus continued for some hours without any immediate prospect of a decisive result, when Cleopatra, whose ship was at anchor in the rear, taking advantage of a favourable breeze which then happened to rise, suddenly set sail, passed through the contending forces, and was followed by Antony. On beholding this shameful flight of their commander, many of the Antonians threw the towers, and other similar incumbrances, into the sea and escaped; which they easily effected, because the enemy had no sails on board. The remaining ships were attacked by the Caesarians with renewed vigour, both at a distance and by boarding, but in the latter attempt without much effect. “It was like an assault,” says the historian, “upon a number of castles or islands.” After some time passed in

§ 4.039 this kind of combat, Caesar, finding the event still doubtful, sent to the camp for fire, which he discharged into the enemy’s ships either by throwing torches and burning javelins by the hand, or by placing combustibles in vessels which were cast by engines. This measure was completely successful. The Antonians, being unable to procure a sufficiency of water to extinguish the fire, perished in great numbers either on board or in the sea, in their endeavours to escape from the flames, which at length were so destructive that the Caesarians themselves became anxious to extinguish the fire for the sake of the prizes, and some of them even perished in attempting to save the enemy’s ships. The battle was fought, adds Dio, on the 2d of September, from which day the reign of Octavianus is to be dated. After the victory he consecrated to Apollo of Actium a captured ship of each kind, inclusively from a ship of four banks to one of ten banks. He enlarged the temple of Apollo, and promoted the celebration of the ancient games named Actia, establishing a quinquennial contest of music and gymnastic, with horse races, and declaring

§ 4.040 the games sacred or accompanied with a public feast. He founded also a city on the site of his camp, which he called Nicopolis, in honour of the victory, peopling it with inhabitants collected from other places, and partly by desolating some of the neighbouring cities. The place where his own tent stood he surrounded with squared stones and adorned with captured beaks of ships, and built in it an edifice open to the sky, which he consecrated to Apollo. The other ancient authors who treat of the battle of Actium add little to the information conveyed by Dio. Plutarch relates that Caesar had 300 ships opposed to 660 of Antony, of which 60 were Egyptian; that Antony embarked 20,000 soldiers in his ships; that the engagement was prevented for four days by a heavy sea; and that on the morning of the fifth there was a calm, and about noon a sea-breeze, when the two lines being eight stades apart, Antony and Poplicola, who commanded the right, relying upon the strength and magnitude of their vessels, made a movement in advance; upon which Caesar retired, in order to draw the enemy farther out, where he thought his light vessels would have the advantage over his less manageable opponents.

§ 4.041 When the engagement had become general, Caesar being in the right wing and Agrippa on the left, the latter extended his flank, and obliged Poplicola to separate himself from the main body, which discouraged the remainder. It was at this moment that Cleopatra, who was in the rear with the sixty Egyptian ships, taking advantage of a favourable wind, steered through the combatants, followed by Antony, and proceeded in the direction of Peloponnesus. The Antonians fought bravely until the tenth hour, when, being much incommoded by a heavy swell ahead, they gave way. Plutarch adds, that 5000 men were slain in the action, and 300 ships taken by Caesar, and that the shore on either side was lined by the land forces as spectators of the battle. The accompanying sketch of the harbour of Prevyza, or entrance of the gulf of Arta, is the best commentary on the facts stated by the historians, and may serve to assist the reader in forming his opinion as to the exact situation in which the battle was fought.

§ 4.042 The battle, according to Suetonius, ended at so late an hour, that Caesar passed the night aboard: The wind, therefore, had changed since Cleopatra made sail, and had set in from the westward; in fact, at the time of year when the battle occurred, breezes from the gulf or calms prevail during a great part of the day, and the swell and sea-breeze set in rather late in the afternoon. This depends chiefly upon the inference to be drawn from the words ολίγον έξω των στενών, employed by Dio to describe the position of Antony previously to the encounter, when Caesar’s line was about a mile distant. It seems evident from the circumstances related, and the nature of the places, that the Antonian fleet occupied the entire harbour of Prevyza, which was by no means too large for such a number of ships, and where they were well sheltered from the weather. If the towers on either side of the strait were intended, as we cannot but suppose, as a protection to the fleet, it is not likely that any of the vessels were on the outside of fort Punta until the first advance on the day of battle.

§ 4.043 The conclusion, therefore, will be, that the action took place within that outer strait, which is included between Pandokratora and cape Skali. It may be objected, perhaps, that the space was there inadequate to so great a number of ships, and the depth of water to vessels so large, though as to the latter it is to be considered that a great change may have occurred since the time of the battle, in consequence of the soil which may have accumulated here,, as it certainly has within the Ambracic Gulf, and on almost every part of the coast of Greece exposed to the operation of alluvions and currents. If Dio intended the outer entrance between Pandokratora and Skali by the words εξω των στενων, the battle took place quite in the open sea, for beyond those two points there is no curvature of the shore, which follows an uniform line from Mytika to the bay of Dhemata.

§ 4.044 CHAPTER XXXV. EPIRUS. April 26.—During the Easter week, from the 9th to the 16th, much rain fell, with a southerly wind and a haze, since which there has been clear weather and a regular alternation of gentle breezes from the gulf and the sea. The gulf wind blows (ευγάζει ο κόρφος) till eight or nine in the morning: about eleven the Μαϊστράλι or sea-breeze sets in, and continues until a little after sunset: its duration is generally greater or less in proportion to the distance of the place from the outer sea. This alternation of wind is constant in fine weather, and prevails upon the whole not less than eight months in the year. In the winter the gulf is subject, like the adjacent coast and islands, to a long continuance of gales from the southward with rain.

§ 4.045 April 29.—This morning at eight I quit Prevyza for Ioannina by the way of Paramythia, accompanied by twelve Albanian horsemen, who are to be reinforced by foot soldiers from the villages at the discretion of the bolu-bashi, and according to the degree of apprehension from robbers. We leave Mytika a mile on the left at 9.10, follow the ruins of the Aquaeduct of Nicopolis as far as the foot of the height of Mikhailtzi, and at 9.40 descend upon the sea beach, exactly at the spot where I landed from Η. M. brig Delight (Capt. Handfield) in the night of the 12th of November, 1807, and had a conference with the Vezir, which led to our peace last summer with the Porte.

§ 4.045n Aly thought it necessary on that occasion to conceal his communication with me from the French consul; and with this view, when I sent a person on shore in the morning at Prevyza to arrange an interview with him, he ordered one of his secretaries to meet him on the beach, and secretly to instruct him to pretend, when brought into the Vezir’s presence, that peace was already made, and to ask for permission to purchase provisions. The scene thus prepared was acted accordingly in presence of the French consul, Aly refusing the pretended request, and haughtily adding that the two nations were still at war, and that all the favour he could grant was liberty to return on board, on condition of our quitting the coast. In returning to the Delight's boat, my agent was again secretly informed by the secretary of the exact spot near Nicopolis where the Pasha would meet me in the evening. The weather appeared so threatening from the south-west, that there was some doubt whether the ship could remain on the coast, and we did not venture to anchor; and the night was so dark, that had not the Vezir caused a fire to be lighted, and two or three muskets to be discharged, I should not easily have found him, seated as he was, under a little cliff on the shore, with Sekhri Effendi and the Greek secretary Kosta, and attended at a little distance by a few palikaria. He had eluded the consul by appointing a meeting with him at Vonitza, towards which place he sailed from Prevyza in his yacht, then changing his route, and landing at Vathy, rode from thence to Nicopolis, During the two hours our conference lasted, the surf rose considerably, but the gale, fortunately, did not reach the bay; so that with a good wetting from the rain and sea, and some difficulty in finding the ship, which we should hardly have done without the assistance of the lightning, our boat returned on board, and we stood away from the coast. I have thought it fair to take the opportunity of mentioning these circumstances, although now of little or no interest, partly because M. Pouqueville has alluded to them very obscurely in his book of travels, but chiefly for the purpose of contradicting an assertion of the Rev. T. S. Hughes, who seems, in several instances, to have given too much credit to the French consul’s information, or to that of other persons in Epirus not more worthy of confidence, and who has thought proper to assert that either in the conference of Mytika, or on some other occasion, “Solemn promises—incautious promises impossible to perform—were made to Aly.”—(Travels in Sicily, Greece, and Albania, vol. i. p. 190.) It is sufficient for me to refer to the published correspondence of Lord Collingwood, to show that whatever Aly may have found it convenient to represent to travellers or visitors from the Ionian Islands, the pretended promises were nothing more than offers of co-operation against the French, and assurances that His Majesty’s ships on the coast had instructions to assist him in any attempt he might make upon the places occupied by the French forces. Aly, however, never chose to avail himself of the assistance, not daring, however desirous he might have been of possessing an ultimate refuge from the Porte in Lefkadha, to undertake an attempt upon that island without the concurrence of the supreme government.

§ 4.046 The southerly winds of the two last days were followed yesterday evening by a heavy rain, and this day the wind continues fresh at south-west, with a great surf upon the coast, and an air cold

§ 4.047 for the season. After following the sea-beach for a mile and a half, our road passes along the foot of the hill of Mikhalitzi, where the remains of the aqueduct of Nicopolis cross one of the ravines which intersect the height. We pass through a scanty wood of crooked oaks, where a thick forest is said to have existed 40 years ago, but which being conveniently situated for the embarkation of the timber, has been thereby reduced to its present state. Leaving a collection of twenty huts called Kanali one mile on the right, we proceed along a narrow plain on the sea side, partially cultivated with corn, and at 11.13 cross near the sea the rivulet of Kamarina, which is shaded by large plane trees, resounding with the songs of nightingales. The river of Kamarina was formerly the southern boundary of the possessions of Hassan Aga of Margariti, but the Vezir has removed it beyond Riniassa, besides which he has taken inland the half of Fanari. A little to the north of the mouth of the river are the magazines of Agriapidhia, from whence, in peaceable times, Kamarina, Kastroskia, and the adjacent places, carry on some commerce with the islands. Here also the islanders are in the habit of landing in harvest time, to work as labourers in the adjacent country. Our cruizers charged with the blockade of the enemy in the Ionian islands have for the present cut off the communication. On a little level by the river side they are ploughing for rokka, which will be sown immediately.

§ 4.048 The situation would admit of irrigation from the river, but the spring rains are usually sufficient. After an ascent from the coast by a gradual slope through corn-fields and oaks, we arrive, at 11.33 at Kastro-sykia, or Kastroskia, a village of 50 houses standing on heights above the sea, which are backed by woody slopes rising to the summit which connects the mountain of Kamarina with Mount Tjekurat, in face of Suli. The Kastroskiotes manufacture narrow woollen cloths, blankets, and carpets, and in common with almost all the villages of this part of the country, make bags of goats’ hair. Proceeding at 3.10, we cross the rugged heights which project into the sea a little to the northward of the village, and which are covered with oaks of various kinds, mixed with an underwood chiefly of lentisk, and at 4.5 halt for the night at Riniassa, a village of 20 houses with a kula, which has been ruined in the wars between Aly Pasha and Hassan Aga. This village is not visible from the sea, but the castle of the same name, which is a mile distant, is one of the most conspicuous objects on the coast. It stands on the summit of a very steep height rising from the sea-beach, on the slope of which are the vestiges of the old town of Riniassa, which as well as the castle was of some importance before the Turkish conquest. The Vezir has lately been making some additions to the old walls of the castle, which were solidly constructed of rough stones, mortar, and broken tiles. He has also built three or four houses to lodge a garrison of twenty Albanians, and another for his own use when he may happen to visit this place, and which remains in the meantime unfurnished and unoccupied. One old English six-pounder is the only ordnance. This place is now the Vezir's frontier garrison towards Tjami, the present boundary between him and Hassan Aga of Margariti being the small stream already alluded to, which rises in the woody mountains surrounding the village of Riniassa, and which flows along the northern side of the Castle-hill into the sea. Two or three miles beyond the river, is a small harbour below the village of Elia.

§ 4.049 April 30.—At 7.20 we begin to cross the mountains towards the plain of Fanari, the road following the edge of a steep ravine, in which flows a torrent, one of several which contribute to form the river of Riniassa. The slopes are covered chiefly with oak, both velani and common; of the latter there are many fine trees, but not straight to any length: there are also many of the aria or quercus ilex of large dimensions: this kind of oak is supposed to furnish the best ship-timber of any. In most places there is a thick underwood, consisting chiefly of lentisk and arbutus. At 8.30 we pass by the ruins of the village of Topolia, where nothing now remains but a church and a few huts. On our right, beyond a small cultivated vale, belonging to the

§ 4.050 village Babatziko, which is not in sight, rises the mountain which from Prevyza makes its appearance between the summit of Zalongo and that above Parga. We soon arrive at the highest point of our route, where stands a solitary church, and where a part of the southern side of the plain of Fanari presents itself to view—then begin to descend through a wood of oaks without much underwood. In some places the ground has been cleared for sowing corn. The trees, instead of having been felled, have been merely killed by means of an incision round the lower part of the stem; the bark, which is serviceable, is then removed, and the tree burnt by a fire lighted at the root; the labour is thus saved of cutting down the trees, the timber being not worth the expence of removal. We descend by a road in some places rugged, and for the most part through a beautiful forest of oak and ilex, where an abundance of nightingales are singing. At 10 having reached the foot of the pass, we enter the plain of Fanari, and arrive at Kanalaki at 10.35. This is now the most considerable village of Fanari, and belongs to a Bey, who is related to Hassan Aga, of Margariti, but who has sided with the Vezir. It was once rivalled by Kastri, Goritza, Koroni, and Koronopulo, but all these have dwindled since Aly has got a footing in the plain. At 3 I set out for a Paleo-kastro or Hellenic ruin, very conspicuous throughout the surrounding country,

§ 4.051 and which occupies a height on the southeastern side of the village of Kastri, midway between Kanalaki and Goritza, which latter village stands on the rise of the hills bounding the plain to the westward. Unfortunately, the bridge over the marsh in the direct route being broken down, we are obliged to make a circuit in which we entirely lose the road among the rice-grounds, so that I am at last under the necessity of giving up the object. Having again obtained a firm footing on the edge of the mountain, we recover the direct route from Porto Fanari to Glyky and Suli, which passes through Artissa, a village on the slope of the mountain opposite to Kanalaki. At 4.40 we pass under Muziakati, another village similarly situated, and about an hour distant from Kanalaki in direct distance. The entrance of Port Splantza, otherwise called Porto Fanari, the ancient Glycys Limen, was visible from our road from a mile beyond'Artissa as far as Muziakati; short of the former point it is concealed from view by a projection of the mountain which advances into the plain south-westward of Kanalaki. Beyond the latter village it is hid by the hills of Margariti about Koroni. Continuing to skirt the foot of the hills as before, we leave Klisura, another small place of about twenty houses on the slope of the mountain to the right, at 4.50, and at 6, having crossed the river of Suli, or Acheron, arrive at Glyky. This plain of Fanari, or Frari as it is called by the Albanians, is every where so marshy, that except at Kanalaki and Potamia, all the habitations of those who cultivate the plain are situated upon the adjacent

§ 4.052 hills. Besides the Gurla, or river of Suli, and the Vuvo, which overflow their banks in the rainy seasons, there are sources issuing from the foot of the mountain below Artissa, and others still more copious which form the marsh near Kastri. Even the upper part of the plain towards Glyky is still at this advanced period of the spring in a swampy state, from the mere effect of the winter torrents from the hills. The river Gurla, in its winding course through the plain, is distant in general from the eastern height about a third of the breadth of the plain, it then leaves the foot of the hill of Kastri on its right bank, turns towards the western height and enters the marshes, which at the present season begin a little below Kastri and Kanalaki, extend to within a short distance of the sea, and occupy all the eastern side of the plain. In summer they are much diminished, but are never entirely dry, and some large lakes still remain in several places similar to those in the marsh of Katokhi, particularly one not far from the sea, and another to the south-east, near the foot of the mountains which there rise abruptly from the level. These lakes furnish a constant and abundant supply of fish. The river of Suli having traversed the marsh, is joined below it by the Vuvo about three miles above the junction of the united river with the sea in the bay of Splantza. The Vuvo rises near Paramythia, waters the valley which extends from thence to Fanari, and then proceeding along the foot of the hills of Margariti on the western side of the plain of Fanari, passes between Koroni and Koronopulo.

§ 4.053 This river is dry in summer in the valley of Paramythia, but in the plain of Fanari there is water at all seasons, supplied probably from sources at the foot of the western heights. The water of the Vuvo is reputed to be bad; and the villages on the slope of the hills near it, either make use of wells or fetch water from the Suliotiko. There seems no reason to doubt that the Gurla, or river of Suli, is the Acheron, the Vuvo the Cocytus of antiquity, and the great marsh or lake below Kastri the Acherusia. The course of the Acheron through the lake into the Glycys Limen accords perfectly with the testimony of Thucydides, Scylax, Livy, and Strabo, and the disagreeable water of the Cocytus is noticed by Pausanias. In the lower plain towards the sea are the villages of Valonderako and Tzikuri, belonging to Turks of Margariti: the inhabitants cultivate flax, wheat, and rice, and possess extensive pastures full of cattle. A little farther from the sea is Lykursi, near the left bank of the Vuvo, opposite to which, on the other side of that river, and distant three or four miles direct from Porto Fanari, is a church, formerly a monastery, of St. John, standing on some remains of Hellenic walls of polygonal masonry, indicating probably the site of Cichyrus, or the Thesprotian Ephyre, which Strabo describes as being situated above the Glycys Limen.

§ 4.054 The water of Port Fanari is fresh, as Strabo and the ancient name attest, which is caused undoubtedly by the great and constant supplies from the Acheron, the Cocytus, and those subterraneous sources by which the lake is chiefly formed. The marshy nature of the plain of Fanari renders it very favourable to the culture of rice and kalambokki, which are its chief produce: flax and wheat are grown in the drier parts, and every where it feeds sheep and cattle in great numbers. Maize gives a return of 40 to 1; it is sown as late as May and June and reaped in October, its growth being assisted by irrigation when the dryness of the season renders that process necessary. The ricefields are divided into squares by little mounds, and at intervals there are ditches across the fields for admitting the water, which is conducted from the river by a canal. The part of the plain near Glyky is less adapted to irrigation than the lower parts towards the Acherusia. When the field is quite inundated the rice is sown, and the ground is kept in the same state till the grain is nearly ripe, when the soil is allowed to dry. Care must be taken that the water is not too cold when the seed is thrown in, which occurs in April or May, the reaping in August. The return is often 150 to 1. All the land in Fanari, which has been taken from Margariti by the Vezir, has been divided into tjiftliks, and farmed for his benefit, with the exception of Kanalaki. He takes one-third of the crop in rice and a quarter in kalambokki, furnishing the labourer with nothing but his lodging. The rice of this district supplies all the adjacent country, but is chiefly sold in the first instance at the