fell for ever. Its intimate connection with Scripture reflects an interest on its early ages, which the researches of Lieut. Wilford have again united to the sacred annals. REMARKS ON Sandys' Travels: containing a History of the original and present state of the Turkish Empire; of Greece, of Egypt, and of Armenia. An account of Rhodes, Grand Cairo, Alexandria, and the Holy Land: with a description of Italy, and the adjacent Islands. Fol. 1673. pp. 240. THIS intelligent traveller, and first "classical tourist" of England, was son to Edwin, Archbishop of York, and educated, it is believed, in Corpus Christi college, Oxford. A college, as, Johnson observes, supplies a long train of mythological imagery; a remark verified in every page of Sandys, who omits no opportu nity of displaying his memory and acumen in that line; a modern voyager would content himself with mentioning his route, or the principal features of the country, but he seems to have consulted his Indices at every stage, for the purpose of identifying every object with history. The antiquarian log-book before us is filled with notices of this kind :-e. g. that "the Illyrians are said to descend of the Colchians, of those that were sent by eta in pursuit of the Argonauts;" that Corfu derived its ancient name from "Corcyra, the daughter of Esopus there buried;". and that Cephalus gave the first example to rejected lovers, by leaping (for Ptercela) from the rock of Leucadia, now St. Maura. Watts, in his logic, blames this spirit of particularising, as superfluous and useless. Our traveller left Venice on the 20th of August, and arrived at Zacynthus on the 2nd of September: during this passage, he compares the Morea to a plantain-leaf, refers the fable of Delos to its frequent earthquakes, and derives the name of Chios from the snow which covers its hills. In this island, he tells us, grows the lentisk, of which tooth-picks were formerly made, commended by Martial in these lines: Lentiscum melius; sed si tibi frondea cuspis Epig. xiv. 22. Nor does he forget the history of the place, for which, like our topographers, he has ransacked his library: speaking of Homer, and the contention for his birth, he says, They also boast of his sepulchre about the Phanaan promontory, not far from whence, in a grove of Palmes, stood the temple of Apollo. They at this day show a place not past a quarter of a mile from the town, not far from the sea, now by the islanders called Erithrea (I know not upon what ground), where they say, that Sibyl prophesied. The rock there riseth aloft, a cended by stairs on the west side, cut plain at the top, and hollowed with benches about, like the seats of a theatre. In the midst a ruined chair, supported with defaced Lyons, all of the same stone, which yet declares the skill of the workman. Here, they say, she sate, and gave oracles. But the relique in my conceit doth disprove the report. For there are the shape of legs annexed to the chair: the remains of some image, perhaps, erected in her honor, though I never yet read of a Chian Sybil, nor of an Erithrea in this island; yet stood there a town so named on the opposite shore; why not rather some idol of the Pagans? (P. 11.) The subject of Homer is continued at Smyrna : Amongst other goodly temples, they had one consecrated to Homer (for the Smyrnians will have him a citizen of theirs), containing his honorable image. For less beholding was he to Pythagoras, who reports that he saw him hanging in hell, for so fabling of the gods. (P. 12.) The ship being detained at Smyrna for fifteen days, he took a Greek who spoke broken English, for his interpreter, and putting himself into a bark laden with sponges, passed over to Mitylene. The whole island is 88 miles in circumference, and, except on the south and west sides, is level and fertile, with excellent havens: the nightingales of this country, he remarks, "sing more sweetly than elsewhere." On the 24th he landed at Tenedos, where he was struck with the accuracy of Virgil's description: it contains about 10 miles in circuit, lying about 5 from Sigæum, is mountainous on the north side, and produces good wines, which, he observes, "declare the inhabi tants to be Grecians." On the next morning, they passed the chalky shore of Phrygia, and landed at Cape Janizary, that he might survey the fields of Troy.2 Est in conspectu Tenedos, notissima fama Æn. ii. 21. 2 We do not remember whether the interesting question, "What be These rivers (Xanthus and Simois), though now poor in streams, are not yet so contemptible, as made by Bellonius, who perhaps mistaketh others for them (there being sundry rivulets that descend from the mountains), as by a likelihood he hath done the site of the ancient Troy. For the ruines that are now so perspicuous, and by him related, do stand four miles south-west from the fore-said place, described by the poets, and determined of by the geographers: seated on a hanging hill, and too near the naval station to afford a field for such dispersed encounters, such long pursuits, interception of scouts (then when the Trojans had pitched nearer the navy), and executed stratagems, as is declared to have hapned between the sea and the city. These reliques do sufficiently declare the greatness of the latter, and not a little the excellency. The walls (as Bellonius, but more largely, describeth it), consisting of great square stone, hard, black, and spongy, in divers places yet standing; supported on the inside with pillars about two yards distant one from another, and garnished once with many now ruined turrets: containing a confusion of thrown-down buildings, with ample cisterns for the receipt of rain; it being seated on a sandy soil, and altogether destitute of fountains. From the wall of the city another extendeth (supported with buttresses partly standing, and partly thrown down) well nigh unto Ida; and then turning, is said to reach to the gulph of Satelia, about 20 miles distant. (P. 17-18.) Returning to their bark, they left Imbrus and Lemnos on the left, at the latter of which he notices the terra sigillata, used by the physicians of the day in wounds, fluxes, and cases of poison. "In regard of the quality of this earth, which is hot, the island was consecrated to Vulcan, who signifieth fire: for the ancient expresseth under these fables, as well the nature of things, as manners of persons. The vein discovered, this precious earth, as they say, doth arise like the casting up of worms: and that only during a part of that day; so that it is to be supposed rather, that they gather as much as the same will afford them." On the 27th of September, they entered the Propontis, and proceeded that night to Pera, where he resided some months with Sir Thomas Glover, ambassador to the Porte. Of Constantinople he has given a circumstantial description, as also of the surrounding country. An essay on came of the armor of Achilles?" is discussed in the volumes of the Schoolmen. Sandys informs us, from Pausanias, of a report prevailing among the Eolians, who repeopled Ilium, that it was cast by the waves against his monument, after the shipwreck of Ulysses. Justior arripuit Neptunus in æquore jactum Naufragio, ut doininum posset adire suum. Alciati Emblemata. While on the subject of the Bosphorus, he introduces these lines from Valerius Flaccus : Jamque dies auræque vocant: rursusque capessunt the Turkish polity follows, concluding with an account of the modern Greeks, which will now be read with increased interest. A nation once so excellent, that their precepts and examples do still remain as approved canons to direct the mind that endeavoureth virtue. Admirable in arts, and glorious in arms; famous for government, affectors of freedom, every way noble: and to whom the rest of the world were reputed barbarians. But now, their knowledge is converted, as I may say, into affected ignorance (for they have no schools of learning amongst them), their liberty into contented slavery, having lost their minds with their empire. For so base they are, as thought it is, that they had better remain as they be, than endure a temporary trouble by prevailing succours, and would with the Israelites repine at their deliverers. Long after the loss of their other virtues, they retained their industry: Ingenium velox, audacia perdita, sermo Promptus, et Isæo torrentior: ede quid illum Esse putes, quemvis hominum secum attulit ad nos : -Juv.' But now they delight in ease, in shades, in dancing and drinking; and no further for the most part endeavour their profit, than their bellies compell them. They are generally taxed by the stranger Christians of perfidiousness, insomuch as it is grown into a proverb, Chi fida in Grego, sara intrigo, in them more anciently noted. (P. 60-1.) Speaking of the Greek language, he says, But now, the Grecians themselves (except some few) are ignorant therein, it being called the Latine Greek, and is a language peculiar to the learned. Yet the vulgar Greek doth not differ so far from the same, as the Italian from the Latine; corrupted not so much by the mixture of other tongues, as through a supine retchlessness. In some places they speak it more purely than in others. For the boys of Pera will laugh, when they hear the more barbarous dialect of other maritime Grecians. And there be yet of the Laconians that speak so good Greek (though not grammatically), that they understand the learned, and understand not the vulgar. Their liturgy is read in the ancient Greek, with not much more profit perhaps to the rude people, than the Latine service of the Romish Church to the illiterate papists. (P. 63.) Illos (Nile) tuis nondum Dea gentibus Io Transierat fluctus: unde hæc data nomina Ponto. Argon. 1. iv. These lines are thus translated by Sandys, seemingly before he began his Ovid: Quick-witted, wondrous bold, well-spoken, than Brought with himself: Sooth-sayer, a Physician, Grammarian, Painter, Rope-walker. All knows VOL. XXVIII. NO. LV. L The first book ends with a description of the Greeks and Franks, and the second opens with his departure from Constantinople in January. Of Samos, he observes that it was the birth-place of Juno," allegorically taken for the element of the air, for that the air is here so pure and excellent." Niceria, he remarks, is corrupted from Icaria, being the spot where Dædalus interred his son Icarus, "who were said to flie in regard of their sails, by Dadalus then first invented to outstrip the pursuit of Minos, when Icarus in another vessel, by bearing too great a sail, suffered ship-wrack hereabout." They then sailed to the southward by Patmos, the retreat of St. John, and— Saw the house wherein (they say) he writ his Revelation; and a little above, the cave in which it was revealed: both held in great devotion by those Christians. After the death of the Emperor, he removed unto Ephesus, and being a hundred and twenty years old, causing a grave to be made, is said to have entered it alive, in the presence of divers, to whom seeming dead, they covered him with earth, which, if we may believe St. Augustine, bubleth like water, to testifie his breathing, and that he is not dead, but sleepeth. In that monastery is reserved a dead man's hand, which they affirm to be his, and that the naiis thereof being cut, do grow again. He describes Rhodes as fertile and temperate. After a stormy passage they arrived at Alexandria, in his opinion, an unsafe harbour. Passing over the historical account of Egypt, and some hints on the source of the Nile, we find a representation of the image of that river, carried by Vespasian to Rome, and preserved in the Vatican, with 16 children playing about it, its usual swell being so many cubits, but in 1610 it rose to 23. The ceremony of cutting its banks, to break the inundation, takes place in August, near Cairo; after which, rejoicings are held in the castle of Michias, where, it is reported, in the times of Paganism, the inhabitants used to sacrifice a youth and maiden to Isis and Osiris every year: but these inhuman rites being abolished, a festival was instituted, and continued to be observed both by Christians and Mahometans. Of the cause of this inundation divers have conjectured diversly. The Egyptians, by three pitchers, deciphered the same in their hieroglyphics, proceeding (as they thought) from a threefold cause. First, from the earth, by nature apt to breed of itself, and bring forth water abundantly. Next, from the South ocean, from whence they imagined that it had his original: and lastly, from the rain which fell in the Upper Ethiopia about the time of the overflow. The most ancient opinion was, that it pro 1 Aug. in Job. Tract. 124. |