Alexander William Kinglake

“ The privileges attached to the vessel and her crew, by virtue of the borrowed flag, are so great as to imply a degree of liberty, greater than that which is enjoyed by individuals in our more strictly civilized countries, so that there is no pretence for saying that the development of the true character belonging to Greek mariners is prevented by the dominion of the Ottomans; they are free, too, from the power of the great capitalist whose imperial sway is more withering than despotism itself, to the enterprises of humble venturers. ”

“ Nicolou's good nature was with him so powerful an impulse, that he could not resist the delight of volunteering to stay with the vessel, whilst his comrades went ashore; his proposal was accepted, and the crew and Captain soon left him alone on the deck of his vessel. The sailors, gathering together from their several ships, were amusing themselves in the town, when suddenly there came down from betwixt the mountains, one of those sudden hurricanes which sometimes occur in southern climes ”

“ The power of listening to long stories (for which by the bye I am giving you large credit) is common 1 fancy to most sailors, and the Greeks have it to a great degree, for they can be per- fectly patient under a narrative of two or three hours' duration. These long stories are mostly founded upon Oriental topics, and in one of them I recognized with some alterations an old friend of the " Arabian Nights ; " I inquired as to the source from which the story had been derived, and the crew all agreed that it had been handed down unwritten from Greek to Greek ”

“ These seamen, like their forefathers, rely upon no winds unless they are right a-stern, or on the quarter; they rarely go on a wind if it blows at all fresh, and if the adverse breeze approaches to a gale, they at once fumigate St. ”

“ The coast on which Nicolou was running his vessel, was somewhere, I fancy, at the foot of the Anzairie mountains, and the fellows who were pre- paring to give him a reception were probably very rough speci- mens of humanity ; it is likely enough that they may have given themselves the trouble of putting " the Admiral " to death, for the purpose of simplifying their claim to the vessel, and pre- venting litigation, but the notion of their cannibalism was of course utterly unfounded; JNicolou's terror had, however, so graven the idea on his mind, that he could never afterwards dismiss it. ”