streamers and music, and the beach was lined with crowds of people, all dressed in their holyday apparel. Citium, the birth-place of Zeno, is at a few miles distance, and retains its ancient name. Cyprus is the largest island connected with Greece, except Candia, or Crete, and was celebrated in ancient times for its attachment to the licentious worship of Venus, who was fabled to have here arisen from the froth of the sea. It was visited by Paul and Barnabas, who landed at Salamis, and went " through the isle unto Paphos." Barnabas is thought to have been the first bishop of Cyprus, and there is a church dedicated to him at Larnica, which is said to be built over his tomb. The island contains at present about 60,000 inhabitants, 10,000 of whom are Turks, and the rest are Greeks. It pays 3,000,000 piastres annually as tribute to the Sultan. The principal exports are wine, cotton, and silk. The government is as oppressive as that which is exercised in other Turkish provinces, and some think even worse. A new governor was daily expected from Constantinople, who was in office some years ago, and is remembered as having been extremely cruel in the exercise of his functions. The more respectable Greeks are anxious to have a missionary stationed among them, principally to establish and superintend schools. They offer to raise 8,000 piastres a-year towards their support, but I fear that their wishes cannot at present be complied with, as there are many other places of much greater population that are destitute of instruction. A number of youths have formed themselves into a class for the purpose of studying ancient Greek. An intelligent young Greek, who was educated in England at the instance of Mr. Wolf, has commenced a school at Larnica, but he does not meet with the encouragement his ability and good intentions deserve. na. I embarked in a Greek brig, June 11, for SmyrWe passed PAPHOS on the 13th, formerly celebrated for the most ancient temple in the world dedicated to Venus, and now for its hundreds of churches. Sergius Paulus, the Roman proconsul, whose name was assumed by the apostle of the Gentiles, resided here, and it was here that Elymas, the sorceror, was struck with blindness. "Now when Paul and his company loosed from Paphos, they came to Perga, in Pamphylia; and John departing from them, returned to Jerusalem." Acts xiii. 13. On the 17th we passed in sight of MYRA, in Lycia, whence the apostle embarked in the ship in which he was wrecked at Melita, and on the 19th we passed in sight of PATARA, a maratime city of the same province, where the apostle, on his way from Philippi to Jerusalem, found a ship bound for Phoenicia, in which he sailed. Acts xxi. 1. During this little voyage, I was presented with a fine opportunity of studying character. We had about fifty souls on board, Turks, Greeks, and Jews, one Egyptian, and several female slaves from Africa. I occupied a little box on deck, over the helm. The Turks took possession of the larboard side of the deck, and the Greeks of the starboard: the Jews were in the forecastle, and the negresses in the long boat, where, in spite of their situation, they were the merriest group in the party. There was something imposing in the gravity of the Turks; in the constancy with which they offered up their prayers at the canonical hours, with their faces towards Mecca, no matter what other scenes were presented around them; and in the studied importance which they always assumed, even in such common acts as the washing of their hands and the cooking of their victuals; and all this was the more striking when contrasted with the laughter and recklessness of the Greeks, who were all day long trolling some catch, or playing at games of chance, or showing themselves adepts at all kinds of silly tricks and buffoonery. The poor Jew moved among them without fellowship, and on his countenance was written too clearly the mark of dejection and care. One of them came to me as I was standing near the carpet of a Turk, which he happened to touch with his toe, for which the old Moslem, seeing the pollution to which his carpet was exposed, railed at the son of Abraham with a bitterness that made me feel keenly for him in his degradation. RHODES. WE anchored about noon, June 20, in the harbor of Rhodes. The city has a good appearance from the sea, with its towers and castles, and rises gradually from the shore. I counted at one time upwards of thirty windmills. I had a walk through the principal streets, attended by the dragoman of the consulate, who had informed me that he had been interpreter to Sir Sydney Smith during the late war. I was now in the land of chivalry, and the town is so little altered in appearance since it was delivered into the hands of the Turks by the knights of St. John, that I might almost have expected to jostle with some steel clad warrior on turning a corner of the streets, or to see the jolly face of some ancient warder on passing under the entrances to the venerable castles. Rhodes was taken from the Greeks by the knights of St. John in 1310, and they kept possession of it until 1523, when it was besieged by Soliman with 200,000 men, and yielded after a brave defence of six months. The moats, walls, and towers are still formidable. The street of the Cavaliers is the most perfect and the worn pavement at the sides bears evidence that it has been trodden by the feet of many generations. It is narrow, and built upon an ascent. The arms of the knights are emblazoned upon shields over the entrances to the wards, together with the arms of the nation to which the ward belonged, and some of these heraldic emblems are still entire. The arms of England are opposite the entrance into the castle of the Grand Master, in which the massy door is yet upon its hinges, and the arch by which it is surmounted is formed of many ribs of elaborate sculpture. The entrance from the street to each ward opens upon a passage that leads to a court, planted with trees, and round the court are galleries or cloisters, from which the apartments are severally entered. At the higher end of this street are the remains of a church, now roofless. Nearly all the old castles and houses are inhabited. The streets are paved with small pebbles, and have a neat appearance. There are many stone balls, of different sizes, scattered in all tunity of examining its appearance, so far as is directions, said to have been used during the siege. possible from the sea. It is about 20 miles in cirThe quarter of the Jews contains about 150 houses.cumference, and its aspect is forbidding and cheerThe city was supposed to be the finest in the world less. The shores are in most places steep and in the time of Alexander. There are two har-precipitate, and from our vessel it appeared as if bors, across one of which the celebrated colossus the inhabitants would be in constant danger of probably stood, but its exact situation is not rolling down into the sea. The highest part of known. the island is surmounted by a monastery, dedicated to St. John, round which are built the houses of a respectable town. We could discover very few trees. The sailors were lavish in their praises of the inhabitants. The island was visited by St. Paul, on his way to Jerusalem. Acts xxi. 1. It is 40 miles long, and 15 broad, very healthy, and might be extensively cultivated, were the government of a different character. It does not contain more than 30,000 inhabitants. The principal exports are honey and wax, and last year there was a considerable trade in oranges, as the crops in other parts had failed. It was with unutterable feelings I gazed upon this dreary rock. The situation of the weeping exiles was before me, who were banished from the pleasures and applauses of imperial Rome, and were sent to inhabit this dull and distant reA Greek brig entered the roads, June 20, bound gion, with none to converse with but sufferers in for Syra, and as this port was more convenient the same calamities, whose very attempts at confor me than Smyrna, I made an agreement with solation would only add still deeper sorrow.the captain, and took leave of my old friends from What must they have felt, and how must they Cyprus. I thus lost the opportunity of seeing have wept, when they beheld from the horizon the Smyrna, and perhaps some other of the Asiatic little speck that was to constitute their world?— churches, but my voyage to Greece was much There was one among these exiles that I seemed shortened. The passage between Rhodes and to know, whose brow was calm, whose eye was the continent of Asia is about 20 miles in width. bedimmed by no tear, and from whose counteIn the evening we could distinguish a great num-nance seemed to beam the serenity of a spirit in ber of islands, nearly all of which are celebrated in the mythology of the Greeks. They rise boldly out of the sea, but are destitute of trees, and greatly disappointed me in their appearance. bliss. It was the beloved disciple of the Lord.— The banishment of the venerable apostle was from a cause perhaps different to that of any of the exiles who had preceded him, as it was "for We were off CNIDUS on the 25th, and the heat the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus was most oppressive, as we had a dead calm Christ." Standing upon one of the eminences of nearly the whole of the day. St. Paul was in the island, and turning towards the continent, St. similar circumstances near the same place. John would be able to distinguish mountains that "When we had sailed slowly many days, and might also be seen from the whole of the seven scarce were come over against Cnidus." Acts churches of Asia; and as he had planted some xxvii. 7. I followed the course of the apostle in of them with his own hand, and probably visited his voyages and travels, and often prayed that I all of them, can we doubt he often would stand might follow him more closely in his holy ardor in thus, and looking towards these interesting spots, the cause of Christ. I seemed to be able to real-lift up his hands to heaven, and pour out his soul ise the appearance of the apostle more powerfully on board ship than in any other place: we were sailing upon the same seas, looked abroad upon the same islands and mountains, and our mariners spoke nearly the same language. We sailed by Cos on the 26th, visited by St. Paul, and celebrated as the birth-place of many eminent men. On the 27th we were within a short distance of CRETE, mentioned in the Apocrypha and by St. Paul. Titus is said to have been bishop of this place, and to have resided here when the apostle wrote his epistle, in which he says, "the Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies," quoting as his authority one of their own authors. Titus i. 12. That "this testimony was true," we have ample evidence in the writings of the ancients. The next day we saw SAMOS, also visited by St. Paul, and the birthplace of Pythagoras. It is separated by a narrow channel from the Ionian coast, and EPHESUS is only a few miles distant. PATMOS. WE were close in with "the isle that is called in prayer, that he who walked among the golden candlesticks would continue to visit them in mercy, and save them from the power of the antichrist that was to come. It is one of those thoughts upon which the mind so much delights to dwell, that from this rock, surrounded only by other similar rocks, and looking out upon distant mountains, there should have been an insight given into futurity, further and clearer than in any other place was ever afforded unto mere man. I remained in quarantine fifteen days at Syra, visited Hydra and Ægina, and saw many other islands of inferior interest, but shall not here attempt to describe them, as they are not in any way connected with sacred history. The island of Rhodes was the last spot upon which my foot touched Mahomedan ground, and I am called upon to take some farewell notice of the remarkable people whose territories I had now forsaken, for the most recently constituted of the kingdoms of Christendom. The followers of Mahomet, in their manners and customs, long resembled the laws of the Medes and Persians, they altered not; and the Turk sitting in silence upon his carpet, utterly unmindful of the scenes by which he was surrounded, was a true emblem of the character of his nation. In the countries professing Christianity there has been a gradual progress in art and science during several centuries, but throughout the whole of the Mahomedan empire, the minds of men seemed to be sinking into a lethargy more and more profound, and all the signs of activity presented elsewhere under a thousand different forms were unable to arouse them from their slumber. There was the invention of printing, the introduction of the Newtonian system, and numberless other discoveries arising from the establishment of the inductive philosophy, the application of steam, and a revival of religion more pure and more extensive than had been witnessed from the times of the apostles, but not one of these events, each of which might exert a power sufficient to shake the world, influenced in the least the mass of the Mahomedan population. Within the last few years the sleep of centuries has been drawing towards a close, but the effects of the powerful opiates that have been taken are evident upon the system, and the present excitement is but as the awakening that precedes death. Turk, attended by a numerous party, near the top of the highest of the pyramids, who manifested all the eager curiosity of Franks. The prejudices of the people generally have been lessened by the great number of Europeans in the employ of government, and the principal insults that the traveller now receives are from women and children. Ibrahim Pacha has, perhaps, adopted the modes of thinking common among Europeans to a greater extent than any other Mussulman chief since the establishment of Islamism. The battle of Navarino taught him that the fangs of "the Christian dogs" were not to be despised. It is difficult to form a just estimate of his character, as the accounts are contradictory of those who have had access to his presence. The exercise of cruelty is more frequently accompanied by the forms of law than in his younger days, but it may be equally severe and extensive. It appears from the public prints that he has this year visited the convent at Nazareth, and was present at the celebration of Easter in the church of the Sepulchre at Jerusalem. The charges are numerous that might be brought by the Mahomedan world against the church of Christ, and there lies at our door a mass of accuThe religion of Mahomet was established by the mulating guilt, that calls upon us loudly to exert sword; it is now perishing by the same process: ourselves by every means in our power to effect and the sword of its destruction is drawn from its its removal. The nations conquered by the first own scabbard, and wielded by its own arm. The caliphs were nearly all infested with the heresy of recent rebellion of Egypt has thrown the Ottoman Arius. There have been Christian churches empire into the hands of a Christian power; other among them in all periods of their history, but Christian powers have only to refuse interference, these churches are fallen, and have the form of and its downfall would be the work of little more religion without the power. Then comes the imthan a single day. It would be in vain to bring portant question, By what means were the Maout the old garment of the prophet, the elevation homedans to receive the true light that shineth of which would once have been answered by the from heaven, and be rescued from their error, and flashes of a million scimitars, as the virtue of its led into the way of peace? The Arians had put inspiration has gone for ever. There is a trem-out the light from before their own eyes, the Greek bling in the hearts of the people, produced by the very power that once gave them courage for the conflict. They then believed that it was written in the book of fate that they must conquer; they now believe that it is written in the same book, in characters equally imperishable, that they must fall. The changes that are taking place are the more interesting, because among such a people any change is wonderful, and a change for the better is almost beyond the limits of belief. Some of these innovations have not been effected without the shedding of much blood, but the opposition has ceased, and the Turks see daily the most serious inroads upon the customs of their ancestors, without a single conservative movement. The great doctrine to which much of their apathy was to be attributed, has been openly disregarded in the adoption of quarantine, and the establishment of schools of anatomical dissection. The commands of Mahomet have been at all times evaded, but it was in secret: now, they are broken by all classes without shame, or the least attempt at concealment. In an hotel at Alexandria, I saw a party of Turks, high in office, drinking to each other's health in bumpers of champagne. The fast of the Ramzan was last year publicly broken by no less a personage than the governor of Damascus. In some minds there are indications of excitement and enterprise. I met a respectable and other churches had it still in possession, but it was hidden in deep recesses to which no one could approach, and the Protestants looked on with criminal indifference. The recent expansion of Christian benevolence has extended as far as Constantinople, Smyrna, Alexandria, and many other places similarly situated, but the work has been hitherto of a preparatory nature; the missionaries have not yet been able to make any concentrated attack upon the strong holds of Mahomet, and the body of the people have never had Christianity brought before them in its pure simplicity and native power. It is well known that there is a law in existence, that any Mussulman who renounces his religion shall be put to death. Under these circumstances, the principal efforts must at present be made by the establishment of schools, by private conversations, and by the distribution of tracts and of copies of the Scriptures; but missionaries must be at hand to instruct more fully those who, by such means, have received "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ," and prepare them for an open profession of the cross, and the consequences of that profession. It is to be feared that without great watchfulness on our part, the spread of knowledge by the instrumentality of the presses now established, will be only the prelude to a more open profession of infidelity; and skepticism, as in too many parallel cases, will take the place of su GREECE. perstition. Ibrahim Pacha was asked by a friend of mine whether he himself would put to death one of his own people who might embrace Christianity, and his reply was this:-"It is a hard question: we have laws." It is the opinion of those competent to judge, that neither Ibrahim nor Ali Pacha would carry this law into execution, but it is probable that the first native converts might suffer from private revenge or a gene-reference is made in the New, are included Achaia, ral attack of the people. It was one of the noblest triumphs ever achieved by the gospel, when the hordes who burst from their fastnesses in the north of Europe upon the Roman empire, and established themselves even in the centre of the imperial city, were converted from idolatry to the religion of Christ. With these conversions the victories of the cross appeared to cease. The conquerors of the Roman empire were many of them conquered in turn, by the Turks and Saracens; but in no place was the religion of the victorious Mussulmans abandoned for that of the vanquished Christians. For the space of nearly one thousand years there was not a single instance of a national conversion to Christianity. The front of cruel and relentless hostility was exhibited by the Moslems towards the Nazarines, whom they suffered to exist within the borders of their land, and their opposition was so successful, that the law against conversion slumbered in its concealment, and few have been the spirits from among the followers of the false prophet, who, for Christ's sake, have been willing to suffer death, or found worthy to join the noble army of martyrs in heaven. It is, however, to be hoped that there have been conversions in secret, that were known only to God. A fellow traveller informed me that a muleteer, with whom he entered into conversation in Greece, confessed to him that he was a convert from Mahomedanism. When travelling between Ancona and Loretto, in Italy, I was told that at one of the villages through which I passed, a Turk had a few days before been publicly baptized. The signs of the times are in some respects fair and promising, and though there is much to depress the servants of Christ who are laboring in these regions, there are other circumstances, in the book of prophecy, as well as in the opening volume of providence, that demand a continuance at the post of danger, and encourage the expectation of better and happier times. The march of the Mahomedan conquerors was first arrested in France; they have since been driven from Spain and Hungary; they have been annihilated in Greece; they have been weakened in Turkey and Persia; the mightiest of their empires now tremble at the prospect of an approaching dissolution; and though the future be dim, there may be discovered in the distant horizon, by the eye of faith, the form of the crescent wasted to an almost viewless streak, and it is setting in darkness behind a mighty pile of prostrate walls, ruinous domes, and fallen minarets; whilst, in the opposite sky, the sun of righteousness proclaims its approach by tints of light that play at intervals along the firmament, and a voice breaks forth from the silence, as the sound of many waters, "There is no God besides Jehovah, and Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God and the Redeomer of the world." THE northern boundary of Greece cannot be defined with precision, as its extent was not the same at all periods of its history; but its southern boundary was at all times the Mediterranean sea. No place in Greece Proper is mentioned in the Old Testament, but among those places to which Athens, Berea, Corinth, Illyricum, Macedonia, Philippi, and Thessalonica; and if the term Greece be extended to all the places inhabited by Greeks, it will also include, in the provinces of Asia Minor, Bithynia, Cappadocia, Cilicia, Colosse, Galatia, Iconium, Lycaonia, Lycia, Myria, Mysia, Pamphylia, Phrygia, Pontus, Pisidia, Tarsus, and the seven churches of Asia. By the prophets Greece is called Javan. Isa. lxvi. 19; Ezek. xxvii. 13, 19; Daniel xi. 2. In the vision seen by Daniel, he beheld a he-goat that came from the west, that had a notable horn between his eyes; and he tells us, "the rough goat is the king of Græcia, and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king." Dan. viii. 21. The prophet Joel charges the inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon with having sold the children of Judah and Jerusalem to the Grecians. Joel iii. 6. In the Apocrypha there are several references to Greece. The word Greek is sometimes equivalent to Gentile in the writings of St. Paul. The ancient states were many of them well peopled, but the population of the modern kingdom of Greece does not much exceed a million souls, and its superficies has been calculated at 1100 geographical square miles. ATHENS. The I SAILED from Ægina, July 24, in company with a Belgian gentleman, who had espoused the side of the king of Holland during the late war. sailors of our caique manifested great pride in pointing out to us the spots in sight, that had been consecrated by the deeds of their fathers. There was not a cape, or cove, or island, that has not been written in words that will never die. The well-known letter of Servius Sulpicius to Cicero, came with great force to my remembrance. Before us was Athens; behind us, Corinth; on our right, Ægina; and on our left were Megara, Salamis, and Eleusis. The sun was setting as we entered the Piræus, and when our little bark had glided into smooth water, we had leisure to give ourselves up to thoughts of other years. We slept in the vessel, as several robberies had of late been committed in an olive-grove, through which we must have passed before we could enter the city. The Piraeus now contains only a miserable coffee-house and a small bazar, though it once rivalled Athens in the splendor of its edifices. In the morning we rode forward to Athens, a distance of about four miles, upon mules that in the mean time had been procured for us from the city. I was kindly entertained at the house of the Rev. Jonas King, of the American Board of Missions, to whom I had brought a letter of introduction from his brethren in Beirout. The ancient city is said to have been founded by Cecrops, a little before the time of Moses. The rock of the Acropolis was first occupied, and it was an admirable position, both for beauty and security, as it is situated in the midst of a plain, and commands an extensive view; but the city itself, independent of the protection it may receive from the citadel, possesses few advantages. It was connected with the Piræus by a road defended on each side by strong walls, and had two other harbors, Munychia and Phalerus. The Acropolis is an insulated rock; the ascent to it is not difficult, and part of the propylæa, or ancient entrance, is still in existence. The remains of antiquity are nearly all disfigured by the addition of more modern buildings. The Parthenon is still grand amidst its ruin, though the columns of the front and part of the lateral porticos are all that remain. The interior was used as a mosque by the Turks, and since their expulsion it has been occupied as a barrack by the Bavarian soldiers. Not far distant are the temples of Minerva Polias and Neptune Erectheus, both of exquisite workmanship, and near them are the celebrated female figures called Caryatides. I ascended to the top of the Parthenon, and had from thence a fine view of the city, mounts Anchesmus and Hymettus, the three harbors, the islands of Ægina and Salamis, the sites of the Academy of Plato and the Lyceum of Aristotle, and many other places of equal interest. The richest relics have been taken away from the Parthenon, but whether their removal shall at length prove a benefit to the arts or a loss, time only can decide. I will not attempt to describe my feelings whilst looking at this "perfection of beauty." I cannot analyse that which passed in my mind so far as to trace each feeling to its separate source; perhaps I am wanting in the vocabulary of taste, or the technicalities of science; but suffice it to say, for the purpose of conveying some impression of my thoughts, that I never derived equal pleasure from the contemplation of any object that was purely the invention and execution of man, as from the sight of this exquisite temple, considered in the abstract as a work of art. The marble retains its original purity, and is yet clear and white after the lapse of twenty-three centuries. There are the remains of two theatres at the foot of the Acropolis, one of which was dedicated to Bacchus, and the other was the Odeium of Regilla. The temple of the winds is an octagon, and each side contains a colossal figure in relief, but by the accumulation of the ruins around, the spectator is brought too near the figures, by which they appear out of proportion to the building on which they are placed. There is a small tower about which the critics are not agreed whether it be the lantern of Diogenes, or the monument of Lysicrates. The temple of Theseus is nearly perfect, though the roof is modern, and it has been consecrated as a Greek church. The sculptures on the frieze represent the combats of the hero with the centaur, and are executed with great spirit. The stones of some of the columns have been wrenched from their proper place by an earthquake. The ancient measures, which were the standards of the time, still exist in stone, near the agora, or market-place. There is scarcely a house or garden within the city that does not contain some relic of antiquity. The Pnyx, where the assemblies of the people were held, may be traced with ease, and the stage on which the orators stood, with many other places cut out of the rock, is nearly perfect, but the voice of Demosthenes is no longer heard. The wall of the present city passes over the hill of Mars, which is a rock of no great elevation, near the entrance to the Acropolis. It was here that Paul stood before the assembly of the Areopagus. Three caves, or dungeons, are shown, in one of which it is said that Socrates drank the poison. The monument of Philopappus, stands upon the hill of the Museium. There are now only sixteen columns of the temple of Jupiter Olympus, though it could boast of upwards of one hundred at the time it was finished by Adrian; and upon one of the entablatures are the remains of a narrow apartment, built by a monk, to which he ascended by a rope, and there lived in perfect solitude. The Illissus was dry at the time of my visit, but there are several springs of excellent water in its bed, at a convenient distance from the city. The form of the Stadium, 680 feet long, is preserved, but the marble benches on which the people sat during the spectacles have disappeared. The present city is little better than a mass of ruins, as it suffered most severely in the late war with the Turks. It is intended that it shall be the capital of the new kingdom of Greece, and the arrival of the court will soon change its appearance. The plan of the city has been decided upon by the king, and it is so constructed that many of the principal remains of antiquity in the lower city will be brought out into view, in one long street that is to pass through the centre, and finish at the ancient entrance. The population is at present small, but it is daily increasing, and will soon be considerable. The air is remarkably pure, and the moon-light is well worthy of all the praises that have been lavished upon it by the poets. There is an extensive olive-grove in the suburbs, which affords almost the only article of commerce connected with the place. The vacation prevented me from seeing the mission schools. The Rev. Messrs. Robinson and Hill, of the American Episcopal Mission, appeared to be much respected, and to be deserving of the respect they receive. They have published from their press many tracts and elementary works in Romaic, as well as a few of the writings of the philosophers in ancient Greek, such as the Memorabilia of Xenophon. The mission from the American Board had been recently reinforced by the arrival of the Rev. J. Rigg. All the American missionaries with whom I have come in contact in India, Syria, and Greece, are men of great zeal and extensive acquirements. I preached at the house of the Rev. Jonas King, to a small congregation in English, and attended divine service in Greek at the same place. The Episcopal missionaries do not aim at the formation of a separate church, but wish to revive the interests of pure religion among those who continue to be members of the present establishment. There was a time when Athens was the city of my soul, and its great men the idols of my imagination; and many an hour did I steal at school from less pleasing occupations to read over on the |