CAPTURE OF A MALTESE BRIG BY THE GREEKS. 113.

light red sails expanded to the breeze, bore rapidly away. Such was the prospect on leaving Napoli di Romania.

It continued to rain the greater part of the day:-about dusk we anchored off Spetzia.

Monday, 27th Dec.-Just as we were heaving the anchor a messenger came on board from Mr. Wilson, the missionary, with a letter for Captain Hamilton. It seems a Maltese brig had been chartered for five months by the Pacha of Egypt; after which he compelled the captain to convey a lading of Arabian horses to Candia, for the use of that government: on their way they were boarded by a Greek schooner, and the fact of their conveying property for the Turks being considered a breach of neutrality, they were taken and carried into Spetzia, where they now remain. The Turks threatened, according to the account of her captain, to cut his throat if he did not assent to their wishes; but as yet we have heard but one side of the story. Of course, Captain Hamilton refused to interfere. It is pleasant to learn that our government has determined to grant the Greeks all the customary rights and privileges which are due from a neutral nation

114

TEMPLE OF MINERVA SUNIAS.

to a belligerent power. This is the first step towards acknowledging their independence.

Tuesday Morning, 28th Dec.-We came in sight of Cape Collonna, or Sunium, the scene of Falconer's Shipwreck: it is more celebrated for the Temple of Minerva Sunias, which stood upon its summit. The remains of this once magnificent structure present a fine object from the sea; thence it appears entire, the front pillars concealing the desolation which has taken place. The wind, called a Levanter, blowing violently against us, it was thought proper to come to an anchor in Porto Mandri, the ancient Pantomatrio according to Sir William Gell*, but this the increased force of the gale rendered impracticable: we therefore put about, and dropped anchor within two or three miles from the Cape, in Porto Caracca.

A little after one o'clock we got on shore, and walked with our guns by a circuitous route to the temple. The country is extremely mountainous and barren, but dwarf cypresses and myrtle, the mastick-tree and Velania oak flourish both in the vallies and on the summits

* According to Dr. Sibthorpe, Thoricus. See Walpole's Travels, 4to. p. 34.

TEMPLE OF MINERVA SUNIAS.

115

of the hills. Game we found Game we found very scarce. On ascending Cape Sunium there is a fine pros pect of the sea, over which the promontory beetles, and of five or six islands spread within the compass of the eye along this part of the Archipelago. The ruins of the temple itself are well worth inspection, but the wanton mischief to which it is continually exposed will leave little gratification to the future traveller. Dr. Clarke and Sir William Gell mention fifteen columns standing, there are now but fourteen, nine on the south-east side, looking upon the sea, three on the north, and two on the north-west. The cornice has been most grossly disfigured.

“BELLONA AUSTRIACA, 1824," in large letters of black paint, which may be seen at the distance of some miles, will remain an indelible stigma upon the whole Vandal crew of that Austrian vessel. Amongst the thousands of names which bedaub these columns, the one most conspicuous is that of "C. THURTELL, R. N." Lord Byron and Tweddel are also handed to immortality through the medium of the suffering column, but I am quite persuaded that his lordship had better taste

116

FOOLISH CONDUCT OF TRAVELLERS.

and better feeling than to employ himself in such senseless mutilation; nor can I believe less of Tweddel. Whoever may have been the instrument, they stand a record of the most egregious folly; it is not only blameable in the act itself, but it affords an ill and dangerous example to the mass of travellers whom fate and their own mischance send from their mother's apron-strings. A name cut upon the stone leads by some inexplicable " tortuosity of mind" to the cutting of another, and, if possible, a larger. Man scorns to be outdone; and the vast number of those who are thus emulous must prove fatal to antiquity: if they do not weaken the column, and hasten its entire destruction, which they certainly do, they draw the mind from the contemplation of other times to anathematize the folly of our own. The unseemly figures which are amassed before the eye inspire very opposite feelings to those which it is the tendency of such monuments to excite; and one might as well, indeed infinitely better, so far as it affects the heart or the understanding, look upon an ancient marble enveloped in modern cement, as observe a beautiful Doric column covered with

away

FOOLISH CONDUCT OF TRAVELLERS.

117

names, of which a great portion are little honour to their owners, and cannot be more so to the column itself. This is a real evil, and it calls for public condemnation. With what intention do people scribble their ill-omened appellations upon the venerable relics of past ages? Purely, as far as I can see, for the ridiculous fancy that they may be "syllabled" by persons who never heard of them, and who do not care one straw whether they ever hear of them or not! Yet this exquisitely childish vanity effects more than Time in the ruin of antiquity, and prompts weak and inconsiderate men to waste, with stupid indifference, monuments which nothing can repair. Let me say it; the breath that encircled the column-the incense which floated around it, when in all the pomp and plenitude of heathen magnificence, is chipped away by these unfeeling pretenders to vertu !

I found amid the ruins of the old town, a little lower on the declivity, two handles of terra-cotta vessels, "those indestructible and