in the day-time, I can neither deny nor confirm their assertion. On the 23d we left the isle of Pat mos to the Westward, and the next day passed by abundance of little islands, most of them uninhabited, and all of them so inconsiderable as not to deserve any particular notice. The 24th we were becalmed off the island called Lango by the Turks, Stanchio by the Greeks, and anciently Cos Coos.

This island affords a pleasant prospect as we approach it, being for the most part a fine level country, but rising gradually into hills towards the East, from whence several little streams fall into the plain, and render it exceeding fruitful. It is about eighty miles in circumference, lying twelve miles distant from the South-West part of the Continent of Natolia; and has one large town in it of the same name with the island, which has a good harbour defended by a castle. The Turkish galleys frequently lie in this port, and their shipping often touch here in their passage from Constantinople to Egypt. The country abounds with cyprus and turpentinetrees*, and is furnished with variety of plants that are valuable for their medicinal virtues: and as for

ever perceived, he doubts not but it was kindled either by the monks or shepherds, partly to divert themselves, and partly to keep up the belief of the great miracle; as it is called by the priests of the island.

*M. Thevenot tells us of a tree in this island, whose branches spread to such a vast distance from its trunk, that two thousand men might easily stand under its shade. He says its boughs were supported by props of timber and pillars of stone, there being several barbers' shops, coffee-houses, and such like places underneath it, with a great many seats and benches. He adds, that the tree was like a sycamore, but bore a fruit like a chesnut. As to the truth of this account, I leave it to the reader's judgment.

the wines of Coos, we find them famous in antiquityt. The present inhabitants are most of them Greeks, as in the other islands of the Archipelago, except the Turkish garrison of the town and castle.

As our vessel lay off this island, the sight of it na. turally brought to our memory some of those eminent men to whom it formerly gave birth, who have rendered their names immortal, and done honour to their profession and to their native country. At the head of these stands that prince of physicians Hippocrates, whose superior abilities so established his reputation, that both Ancients and Mo-' derns are unanimous in giving him his just applause. In the time of this great man a pestilence inade terrible devastation in several parts of the world; which is said to have begun in Ethiopia, from thence to have passed into Lybia and Egypt, then to have invaded Judea, Phoenicia, Syria, and the whole Persian empire, and lastly to have spread itself into Greece, and broke in upon Athens like a raging torrent. Thucydides, who was seized with that distemper, but recovered, and afterwards freely visited many others that were afflicted with it, has described very minutely the several circumstances and symptoms that attended it; in order, as he himself says, that a faithful and exact account of that calamity, might serve as an instruction to posterity, in case the like

The wines of this island were reckoned loosening and purga tive by the Ancients, as appears from that passage of Horace, "Si dura morabitur alvus,

"Mitulus et viles pellent obstantia concha,

"Et lapathi brevis herba; sed albo non sine Coo."

Sat. IV. Lib. II,

And upon the same account they are called " lubrica," that is "alvum solventia," by Persians, Sat. V. 135.

should ever happen again. Lucretius has also given us a poetical description of it, and Hippocrates, who was employed in visiting the sick, has written of it as a physician.

This pestilence baffled the utmost efforts of art, and the most robust constitutions were not able to withstand its attacks: in a word, it swept away vast numbers at Athens, and amongst the rest Pericles, one of the greatest men that city ever produced; who, while he lived, was the main stay and support of the Athenian republic, and who perhaps is the only one of whom it can be said, that he maintained himself in full credit for forty years together in a popular government. He acted, as an excellent historian observes, with so much wisdom, moderation, disinterestedness, and zeal for the public good; he discovered, in all things, so great a superiority of talents, and gave so exalted an idea of his experience, capacity, and integrity, that he acquired the confidence of all the Athenians, and fixed in his own favour, during the long time he was in power, their natural fickleness and inconstancy. He suppressed that jealousy, which an extreme fondness for liberty had made them entertain against all citizens distinguished by their merit and authority: and the most surprising circumstance is, he gained this great ascendance merely by persuasion, without employing force, low artifices, or any of those little shifts which a mean politician excuses in himself, upon the specious pretence that the necessity of public affairs and reasons of state makes them necessary. But to come to what relates to Hippocrates.

The plague, as has been hinted already, had made grievous havoc in Persia, before it spread itself into

Attica: upon which occasion Artaxerxes, the Persian monarch, who had heard of the great reputation of Hippocrates, caused him to be invited by letters to come into his dominions, in order to prescribe to those who were infected. The king made him the most advantageous offers, setting no bounds to his rewards on the side of interest, and, with regard to honours, promising to make him equal with the most considerable persons of his court. But all the tempting glitter of the Persian riches and dignities could not corrupt Hippocrates, or stifle that hatred and aversion which the Grecians had entertained for the Persians, ever since those Asiatics had invaded their country. The honest physician therefore sent this answer to his invitation, That he was free from either wants or desires, that he owed all his cares to his fellow-citizens and countrymen, and that he would not leave the Grecians in distress, to give his assistance to barbarians. Artaxerxes, enraged at this denial to the highest degree, sent to the city of Cos, the native place of Hippocrates, and where he then resided, commanding the inhabitants to deliver him up, that he might be punished according to his insolence and perverseness; and threatning, in case of refusal, to demolish their city, and lay waste their whole island. The Coans, however, let this haughty monarch know, that the menaces of Darius and Xerxes had not been able to make them comply on another occasion, and that his threats should be equally impotent on the present; that, let the consequence be what it would, they would never give up their fellow-citizen into his hands; and that they relied upon the gods for protection.

As Hippocrates had said that he owed himself en

tirely to his country, so the moment he was sent for to Athens he went thither accordingly, and continued there while the plague raged with the greatest fury: nor did he leave the city till it was quite free from that distemper. He devoted himself entirely to the service of the sick, and sent several of his disciples into the infected parts of the country after he had instructed them in what manner to treat their patients. The Athenians, affected with the deepest sense of gratitude for the generous care and attendance of this great physician, ordained by a public decree, that he should be initiated in the most exalted mysteries, in the saine manner as Hercules the son of Jupiter; that a crown of gold should be presented him; and that the decree by which it was granted should be read aloud by an herald at the Panathenæa a solemn festival celebrated at Athens in hon

*

* This festival was first instituted by Ericthonius or Orpheus, and called simply Athenæa; but was renewed and enlarged by Theseus, when he had united the several towns of Attica into one city, and then called Panathenæa, or the feast of all the Athenians. At first it continued only one day, but afterwards was prolonged several days, and celebrated with greater preparations and magnificence then was usual in the primitive times. There were two solemnities of this name, the great, and the little; the former of which was kept once in five years, and the latter every third year, or rather as some think, annually. In these feasts were exhibited racing, gymnic exercises, and contentions for the prizes of music and poetry, which last were first instituted by Pericles: and ten commissaries, elected out of the ten tribes of the Athenians, presided on these occasions, to regulate the forms, and distribute the rewards to the victors. The first day in the morning a race was run by persons on foot, each carrying a lighted torch in his hand; and in the afternoon they ran the same course on horseback. The gymnic or athletic combats followed the races; and lastly the musical contention, in which were sung

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