The island of Santa Maura seems almost to consist of a single mass of limestone, but it contains in its bosom some romantic rocky valleys, and fine plains in several places towards the shore. The uplands are generally cultivated in corn. The lower ground in the neighbourhood of the town is an almost continued olive-grove. The temperature of a copious spring, which is conducted to the town, was 62°, at the spot where it gushes out from the limestone rock, that of the air being 55°.
We engaged a boat to carry us to Patras for twenty-five dollars, but the bad weather confined us till the 23rd, when we went on board our vessel, which was in quarantine. A contrary wind sprung up, and after spending the night moored to a bank on the side of a salt lagune, we returned to the town. The term of quarantine of the boat just then expired, and we were enabled to get back to our old quarters. On the 28th we again got into motion, and made about forty miles that day. At night we brought up under an uninhabited island called Scrofa, which, though somewhat larger and higher, could not fail to put us in mind of our old shelter at Agioneesi, especially as we were detained there all the 29th by easterly winds. On the 30th the wind was not unfavourable, but the boatmen thought the swell too much for them. About noon we persuaded them at least to get out to see how it was. Our track lay round a flat sandy point, where the waves ran very high and sharp; the sailors were steady and skilful, but our boat seemed hardly equal to it. With such a wind they said it would be impossible to land at Patras, and therefore, after sailing about two hours, we stopped among the shallows and sand banks at the mouth of the Aspropotamos, about eight miles from Messolungi, and fifteen from Patras. The next morning a favourable breeze encouraged us to proceed, but it soon changed, and drove us back again. After a little interval the westerly wind again sprung up, and we made a second attempt with the same result, but at last all wind ceased, and we rowed across to Patras. It was too late to seek after a lodging, but we applied to the consul, Mr. Cartwright, as we had had quite enough of the boat, and he very hospitably took us in himself. Three English travellers were also in his house, and the contrast in passing unexpectedly into polished society, with all its comforts and conveniences, immediately from our rough accommodations, was very striking.
A favourable westerly wind again enticed us to try our fortune at sea, but with our usual ill success, as we had to stop at Vostizza several days, with only the amusement of advancing for a few miles in the morning and returning again in the evening. At last, our patience being exhausted, we continued our journey by land. Our luggage had increased during our progress, and our desire on leaving Naples to reduce it as much as possible, had rendered it more inconvenient. We had no Greek servant, we could not speak the language, and were totally unacquainted with the practices of the country. These considerations had made us more willing to accept the boat which was offered to us at Patras, but fortunately we had given permission to a Greek to accompany us, who was going, as he said, to procure the payment of a debt from the bey of Corinth, and we found him very useful.
Vostizza is seated on the brow of a long ridge of gravel hill, which, high and bluff towards the west, gradually loses itself in the plain towards the east. This gravel is in some parts almost wholly composed of fragments of limestone, in others, siliceous stones predominate; they are of various sizes, more or less rounded, and form sometimes a loose gravel, and sometimes are cemented into a hard rock. The soil is very cavernous, probably from this difference of structure, and particularly so towards the east end, where the town of Vostizza stands. At the foot of the cliff there is a copious spring of good water, and by it a magnificent plane-tree. Vostizza has lately suffered by an earthquake, and the sea on this occasion is said to have bathed the lower branches of this tree, an elevation of about fifteen feet from its present level. Another range of hills behind Vostizza, higher and bolder than the gravelly eminences above-mentioned, I conjecture, from its forms, to be of sandstone, and again, behind these, there is a third range, more lofty and compact, which is covered with pines, and sprinkled with snow. The opposite hills of Albania are wild and dreary. Behind them we distinguished Parnassus, a ridge of the purest white.
We were glad to leave this place, and at last, on the 11th we set off with four mules towards Corinth. The day was fine, the scenery delightful, and the road for horses pretty good; we were obliged to turn out of our way towards Megaspeli, as the river which descends from it was unfordable, and it was necessary to seek the assistance of a bridge. We were far from regretting this interruption, as it brought us to the mouth of a most beautiful romantic valley, with more of an Alpine than an Apennine character, richly wooded even along the summits of the lofty crags, and bounded at the distance by snowy mountains. Afterwards we passed along a delightful natural terrace, which seems made for a road, and after recurring again for some time to the shore, crossed the mouth of a fine valley, which seems blocked up by a singular castle-like mountain, and thence, on a slope covered with Pinus halepensis, Arbutus Andrachne and Unedo, and a vast variety of evergreen shrubs. The hollows sheltered the oleander, and the crags above were covered with pines. At night we reached a khan, that is, a room with a good wood fire, which was kept up all night, and in which we found a mat, whereon we laid our quilts and reposed ourselves. The next day also we passed some beautiful spots. In one of these we had the scenery of a pleasure-ground, a beautiful lawn with scattered trees and shrubs; and the torrent beds covered with a fine sand, looked like winding, gravel walks beautifully fringed with oleander and other plants, but on the whole, the journey was less pleasant than that of the day before.
As we proceeded, Parnassus became a very conspicuous object on the opposite shore, and Helicon of much inferior elevation, looked when we first distinguished it, like a sculptor’s lion couchant without a head. I gathered the fruit of the myrtle-groves which we often had to traverse, and found the flavour much better than I expected. That of the Arbutus Andrachne is smaller and more insipid than the berries of the common arbutus, and these are not very good.
The third day was very cold, and the last half of the way over a bleak and naked plain to Corinth. We arrived there about four o’clock, and obtained a lodging at the house of a Fourlan physician, Andrea Simonetti, who supplied us with a very comfortable room, and with mattresses, and some other luxuries to sleep on; he makes no difficulty of receiving money, which is much better than if one had to pay him in presents, but he is rather greedy, and his son still more so. The wife of the latter secreted a silk handkerchief, which I did not discover till my arrival here. The old man had another son who died last summer; he praised him to us, and declared that his death had deprived him of all comfort; “c’è un altro, ma—” This ma was very expressive, and I could not help pitying him.
You may suppose we hastened to the temple figured in Stuart, the first building we saw of Grecian times. In his days eleven columns were still standing. Now there are only six, but it is yet a magnificent ruin, and pleased me better than I expected, for I had anticipated a heaviness in the enormously projecting capitals, which is not found in them. The material is sandstone, but it has been covered by a thin coat of hard stucco, of which traces are visible in some of the flutes, on one capital, and on the internal face of the architrave. In this stucco, instead of sand, the workmen appear to have used coarsely pounded crystals of calcareous spar, whose fragments still glitter in the sun. The columns, I think, have had an entasis, but the angles of the flutes are so much broken that it is impossible to be very decided on the subject. There are fragments of columns on a much larger scale in another place, and several portions of brick buildings, which must probably be attributed to Roman times. One to the east of the present town, of mixed brick and stone, has been an octagonal, domed chamber, with eight niches. In this direction there is also an amphitheatre sunk into the ground, not very large, nor magnificent. We traced the ancient city walls for some distance, but they present no particulars of much interest.
No traveller is permitted to pass the Isthmus by land without an order from the pashaw of Tripolizza, which it would require eight days to obtain. We were therefore once more obliged to try the sea, and leaving Corinth on the afternoon of the 15th, we rode to Cenchrea, and after some difficulties with the custom-house officer, stretched ourselves in the boat, and were awakened next morning at four o’clock with the intelligence that we were in the harbour of the Piræus. The custom-house again was the source of some delay, but in the mean time we sent up to the city for horses, and before ten arrived at Athens.