LETTER XIV.
TO CAPTAIN SMITH.
Smyrna, November 14th.
MY DEAR FRIEND,
Convinced that you will be happy to hear of our arrival in Asia, I take advantage of the first courier to send you a letter.
Independent of the satisfaction of being in a region so noted in history, and of traversing scenes which one has so often contemplated in the page of antiquity, we have the happiness of finding a society we did not expect in this lost country--a soil where the iron hand of Despotism checks every generous sentiment in the vanquished Greek, and where the conqueror Turk, proud in his ignorance, scorns the refinements of more enlightened people, and looks down with insolence or contempt on every nation but his own. He has, however, many good qualities; and his true character, I perceive, is not easily delineated. I shall consider him attentively, and from time to time send you those traits I discover. In the mean while, I will conclude this letter with my Journal from our leaving Modon to our arrival at this city.
Saturday, October 20th.
At eight o'clock this morning, we left Modon, and, at three in the afternoon, were opposite Cape Matapan. The country appears barren; but there are several villages in sight.
In the night, we entered the Archipelago, or Ægean Sea, by passing between Cytherea (the Island of Venus, now called Serigo) and Cape Angelo, the south-east point of the Morea.
This neighbourhood is inhabited by a nest of pirates, who call themselves the real descendants of the Lacedemonians, and, though subject to the Turks, acknowledge no law.