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selves from all connection with the whites, the Haitians renounced their allegiance to the Pope, and therefore the Emperor is the spiritual as well as temporal head of the nation. The Pope having no power or voice in the management of affairs among them, priests of the most desperate and disreputable character have swarmed to the island, who instead of laboring to reform and improve the morals of the people are largely responsible for the prevailing corruption. The government has to keep a sharp and constant look-out for them, and pass laws to keep them from the most scandalous outrages upon muorality. The following document, issued by one of Soulouque's ministers, a zealous Catholic, the judicial officer highest in authority upon the island. I translate from "Le Moniteur Haitian," the government paper which circulates throughout the island.

TRANSLATION.

"The Grand Judge, to the Members of the Councils of Notables, in the Communes of the Republic:

•NOTABLE CITIZENS, -Certain grave abuses, introduced into the country by the clergy, have awakened my attention, and for the interest of religion it was necessary that I should adopt some measures to bring them to an end.

"You know that religion is an object most venerable in the eyes of the people, and that it exerts a salutary influence upon men and upon societies, by lending its support to the laws. Every stigma which is brought upon it is dangerous, and the more so when it is brought upon it by its ministers.

"Many, regardless of the character with which they are clothed, of their proper dignity, and even of common propriety, openly give themselves to acts of trade, to commercial operations, which often engage them in litigation, so that they frequently appear before the bar of the courts contending with their opponents.

"And as if this spectacle, which strikes religion at the heart, were not sufficiently afflicting, many of them keep at the parsonages in their dwellings, in the derisory capacity of housekeepers (sous la qualification dérisoire de gouvernantes), young females, and by a course of conduct opposed to good morals, of which they ought to be the living examples, give occasion for public scandals which tend to their disgrace in the eyes of their flocks, and destroys the sublime moral of the gospel which they are charged to preach in all its authority.

"This state of things, gentlemen and

citizens, is inconsistent with a society properly constituted. That it may continue no longer, I charge you to have an eye continually upon the curates of your respective parishes, and to report (dénoncer) to me every violation of this statute which they may commit, that it may not be unpunished.

"They are forbidden hereafter to engage in commercial affairs of any kind, and to retain at the parsonages or in their dwellings, in any capacity whatever, young females, unless they are of an age not to be suspected.

"You will give earnest attention to these instructions and acquaint me of their reception.

"I salute you with consideration.

"J. B. FRANCISQUE."

With such priests to mould the morals of the people, it is easy to judge what those morals must be!

The island of Hayti is occupied by two distinct people, descendants of the old Spanish and French colonies. Its population is estimated at about 600,000 or 700,000. The Haitians, with about two thirds of the population, possess only about one third of the territory. Its greatest length from east to west is about 400 miles. Its breadth varies from 40 miles near its eastern extremity to about 150 near its centre, and it embraces, according to Mr. Lindenau, an area of nearly 29,500 square miles. Columbus called the island Hispaniola, and it has also been called St. Domingo from the city of that name on its southeastern coast; but Hayti or Haiti (the mountainous country) was its original Carrib name. The French bestowed upon it the deserved name of la Reine des Antilles. All descriptions of its magnificence and beauty, even those of Washington Irving in his history of Columbus, fall far short of the reality. It seems beyond the power of language to exaggerate its beauties, its productiveness, the loveliness of its climate, and its desirableness as an abode for man. lumbus labored hard to prove to Isabella that he had found here the original garden of Eden; and any one who has wandered over these mountains and plains, breathed this delicious air, and feasted his soul and his eyes upon the scenes every where spread out before him, is quite ready to excuse the apparent extravagance of the great discoverer. To a large extent the resources of this island are at present undeveloped, and it presents a wide contrast to its former wealth and productiveness. In 1789, it contained a population of

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40,000 whites, 500,000 slaves, and 24,000 free colored. Not only its rich plains, but in many parts its mountains were cultivated to their summits. The cultivated lands amounted to 2,289,480 acres ; which were divided into 793 plantations of sugar, 3117 plantations of coffee, 3160 of indigo, 54 of chocolate, and 623 smaller ones for raising grain, yams, and other vegetable food. Its exports, as stated by the intendant of the colony, were £4,765,229 sterling. An active commerce united it with Europe, and twenty ports of trade were filled with 1500 vessels, waiting to freight home its rich productions. In riding over the island the mementos of this prosperity are every where to be seen. Large broken kettles, the remains of immense sugar houses, are scattered along the roads and over the fields. The remains of massive and magnificent gateways, and the ruins of princely dwellings, scattered over the island are evidences of the highest state of wealth and luxury. But these rich plains and mountains, are now almost an uncultivated waste. A few coffee plantations are to be found, which are kept up with the greatest difficulty on account of the impossibility of securing among the natives the necessary laborers. The most of the people out of the towns live in rudely constructed houses, unfurnished with the usual comforts of life, and but a few degrees above the huts upon the shores of their native Africa. The soil is so exceedingly productive, and there is so much that grows spontaneously, that very little labor indeed is necessary to secure the food necessary to sustain life; and the climate is such that, if so disposed, they need spend very little for clothing. Being thus under no compulsory necessity to labor, industry is the exception, indolence and idleness the rule.

They generally inclose around or near their dwellings a small patch of ground, which is cultivated mostly by the females, and where, with very little labor, they raise coffee, bananas, corn, and other vegetables for their own consumption, and a small surplus for sale, from the proceeds of which they procure their clothing and such other articles of convenience as they are able or disposed to purchase. I should judge that far the largest part of all the coffee that is exported from the island is raised in these small quantities, and brought to market in small lots upon the backs of mules. The logwood, mahogany, and other exports are mostly procured in small quantities in much the same way,the men of course doing most of this heavy labor.

Bountiful as are the provisions for supplying the wants of man here, there is, incredible as it may seem, a vast deal of suffering for want of the very necessariés of life. The government being in reality an irresponsible despotism, every male citizen is liable to be seized at any moment and forced into the army; so that if he raises a crop there is no certainty but that in the very act of securing it, he may be torn away from his family, and the fruits of his labor be left to perish while he is marched away to the frontier, to return he knows not when. In addition to this, multitudes are so thriftless and improvident that they will not make any provision for the future-they will not even gather those productions that are every where so bountifully spread around them. I have rode through wild uncultivated woods, and seen on every hand groves of orange trees groaning under their delicious golden loads, as I have seen the orchards of western New-York weighed down with their heavy burdens. A little farther on, I have come upon thickets of coffee bushes matted over with their rich purple berries. Besides these, tobacco, ginger, and other valuable products grow wild in the same profusion over these mountains, and year after year there waste away and perish like the rank grass of our own prairies. I have wandered over the rich rice and cotton fields of the South, and the prairie and bottom lands of the West, but their bountiful products are meagre compared with those to be seen here.

But bountiful and Eden-like as is this island, the contemplation both of its past history and present state excites only the saddest emotions. The history of Hayti from its discovery to the present day is a most melancholy history. When discovered by Columbus it is supposed to have contained more than 1,000,000 of the Carrib tribe of Indians, but, incredible as it may appear, in consequence of their wholesale butchery by the Spaniards, and the severe drudgery they were compelled to undergo in the mines, in the short space of sixteen years they were reduced to 60,000. These outrages upon humanity, entailing such a lasting stigma upon the Spanish name, were followed by the wellknown introduction of slavery into the island, with all its indescribable cruelties and horrors, and its subsequent fearful end. But the gloomy chapter of its woes does not terminate with the tragic, wellknown "horrors of St. Domingo." From that day to the present it has been an almost uninterrupted scene of conflict and

bloodshed. Internal dissensions and desolating civil wars have continued to mark its history; and recently three great and powerful nations have intervened in vain to secure for this ill-starred island the blessings of peace. No soil has so long and so constantly been ensanguined with human blood. Blood marks every page of her history, from the time her beautiful shores first greeted the delighted vision of Columbus until the present day;-the blood of the peaceful inoffensive Carribs,― the blood of the wronged and outraged

children of Africa,-the blood of their butchered masters, the blood of Le Clerc and his noble, but ill-fated army,-the blood of Dessalines, Christophe, and of thousands more who have perished in the insurrections and revolutions that have desolated this fair island. Sad, sad indeed has been the fate of the "Queen of the Antilles." I leave it to others to deduce the lessons that her history suggests, and will not attempt to penetrate the dark vail that hides her future.

THREE DAYS IN ARGOLIS.

These massive walls,

Whose date o'erawes tradition, gird the home
Of a great race of kings, along whose line

The eager mind lives aching, through the darkness
Of ages else unstoried, till its shapes

Of armed sovereigns spread to godlike port,
And, frowning in the uncertain dawn of time,
Strike awe, as powers who ruled an older world,
In mute obedience.

T was between six and seven in the evening of the first of April, before I could make the necessary arrangements for a tour with a party who intended setting out on the morrow from Athens for Nauplia. Mr. N, late an antiquarian attached to the British Museum, and now appointed Vice Consul for the Island of Mitylene, and C, son of a London publisher, were to be my companions; and we had engaged Demetrius, or Demetri, for our guide. By the time we had fully made up our minds to leave, it was well nigh dark, and yet neither Demetri nor I had procured our passes, without which we were liable at any time to be stopped on our way, and might be subjected to considerable trouble in clearing ourselves from the suspicion of being either robbers or vagrants. The passport office was closed, but the timely expenditure of two or three drachms readily opened it for us. A new difficulty presented itself; for not a blank pass was to be found high or low. The ingenuity of the clerk easily surmounted this obstacle. An old pass which had seen service was discovered; the name was transmuted to what might reasonably be supposed to bear a slight resemblance to mine; and the words "with his man, Demetrius " were added. So we were permitted to visit Argolis.

We rose early the next morning; and by five o'clock were in a carriage, and on our way to Piraeus, about five miles east from

TALFOURD'S ION.

Athens, by the macadamized road, which for three fourths of the distance runs in a perfectly straight line across the meadows. The northern of the great walls of Themistocles occupied exactly the same ground; or rather I should say that the German surveyors employed its ruins for the substruction of the road, and every violent rain uncovers for a time the upper course of stones. Our driver did himself credit, and we reached the harbor in three quarters of an hour, and in plenty of time for the little Austrian steamer, Archiduca Ludovico, in which we took passage for Nauplia. The weather was cloudy and dull when we started, but as we advanced, the atmosphere became clearer, and we saw with great distinctness the shores of the Saronic Gulf, upon which we entered. We were soon out of the small harbor of Piraeus, passing through its narrow mouth, which is still further contracted by the remains of the old walls. They abutted in two piers, about two hundred feet apart. When a heavy chain was drawn across this narrow opening, as was done by the old Athenians, the harbor was considered well protected. Just beyond them, our attention was called to the simple monument of Miaulis, and only a few feet further were the ruined frag ments of what has been by popular tradition dignified with the name of Themistocles' tomb. Whether it be his sepulchre or not, the bones of the great general of ancient times, and the most famous

admiral of modern Greece, lie mouldering on the shores of the Ægean, within a few yards of each other. Themistocles, it is well known, was buried by the sea side, in full view of the Straits of Salamis, the scene of his most splendid victory over the Persian fleet.

We varied our course as soon as we had cleared the promontory of Munychia, and leaving on our right the island of Salamis, took a southerly direction towards the eastern headland of Argolis. This brought us within a very short distance of the temple of Ægina, dedicated of old to Jupiter Panhellenius. Through the Captain's glass we could distinguish the different columns without difficulty in this clear atmosphere. It is one of the most perfect ruins out of Athens itself; but we saw it to little advantage, and I reserved a visit for a future occasion.

There are quite a number of passengers on board our little steamer, and as the day was fair and mild, every body congregated on deck. Indeed, most of them were deck passengers, the trip being a short one. The Greeks are talkative and easy of access, so that it is not at all difficult to form a number of acquaintances in a short time. Our company was a lively one, too; and, as they had nothing else to do, most of them amused themselves with cards. One party of eight or ten were seated in Turkish fashion on the deck near the helm, forming a circle around a cloth, on which figured a large piece of cold mutton and several bottles of wine. The men helped themselves plentifully, and disdaining forks, made use of their jackknives to cut the meat, or else tore it in pieces with their fingers. These evidently were all from the same neighborhood, and members of the same clan. Some of them had that free and easy look, mingled with a considerable share of fierceness, which distinguish the old Klefts; others who were younger, evidently belonged to the no less energetic but more tractable class, which is now springing up to take the place of the others. I fell into conversation with some students of the University, who were returning from Athens to spend the Easter week vacation at home. Like all the rest of Greek students they were poor, and evidently were self-made men. Another set were gathered around a musician, who diverted them by playing on an instrument much resembling the banjo, and singing their country songs.

There were but two cabin passengers besides ourselves; and they were members of the house of representatives. One of them, M. A., I found disposed to be very

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communicative. He informed me that an election was to take place at Argos, the next day or the day after, and that he was going there to see about it. Being a partisan of the king, he was commissioned to procure as favorable a result for the ministry as he could. The officer to be chosen on the occasion was the demarch, or mayor of the town, the most important municipal authority. The mode of election is certainly a most curious one. people choose twelve men as electors, with twelve more for substitutes. These twelve choose from their own number four men, with their substitutes; and finally these four select three candidates for the office of mayor. Their names are presented to the king or ministry, and they designate the one who shall be mayor. Out of the three candidates, I presume, the monarch may safely depend on one who will advocate the ministerial measures for the purpose of gaining office. Of course in so complicated a procedure the government will find plenty of opportunity for wielding an influence over the election. My friend A- had undoubtedly some part to take in the election of a mayor in the important town of Argos, as he was furnished by the ministry with an order for an escort of soldiers through the dangerous passes from Argos to Corinth, of which he invited me to avail myself in returning to Athens.

By eleven o'clock we had crossed the Saronic Gulf, passing close to the island of Poros, remarkable of late years for the burning of the Greek fleet in its little harbor; but much more famous under the name of Calauria, as the scene of the death of Demosthenes. It is a bleak,. barren rock, without the sign of a habitation on this side. We kept on close to the mainland, and inside of the island of Hydra, which rises high and rocky from the sea. The town of Hydra itself is picturesquely situated on the side of the hill, rising in the shape of a theatre. A ridge, however, divides it into two parts, which running out into the water, forms two harbors, the smaller of which, as usual, serves for quarantine. The house of Conduriotti, the famous Hydriote, stands on the narrow tongue of land between the two harbors, and was pointed out to me. Hydra, I am told, has declined very much of late years. Its losses were immense during the revolutionary war. All its commerce was, of course, ruined, and as, together with Spezzia, it sustained the whole burden of the war by sea, the prizes obtained never compensated for the expenditures it incurred. Since the revolution

Spezzia has regained some of its former importance, but the fleet of Hydra on the Black Sea has diminished exceedingly. The privileges which Hydra used to enjoy under the Turks were such, that the inhabitants had little reason to complain of tyranny. The island was almost free from the government of the Porte, governing itself, allowing no Turk to set foot on land, and paying only a small annual tribute. Commerce has usually the effect of diminishing national prejudices, and making men more tolerant of each others' customs; but at Hydra it seems to have had a directly opposite effect. A Smyrniote lady at Athens told me that her father once entered Hydra in Frank dress, and came very near losing his life by doing so. So inveterate was the dislike of the inhabitants for the foreign costume, that the gentleman was pursued and hooted at in the streets, and compelled to take refuge in a house. It was a characteristic feeling of patriotism, that led their admiral Tombazi to reply to one who exclaimed, "What a spot you have chosen for your country;" "It was liberty that chose the spot, not we." But along with this noble sentiment, and with others distinguishing them above even the rest of their countrymen, the Hydriotes possess a good deal of sordid love of gain. It is said that there actually existed in the city at the time of the revolution three mints for the manufacture of counterfeit Turkish coin, which was taken into Turkey and there put into circulation.*

Our steamboat stopped but a few moments off Hydra, to land some passengers, and then continued its course until coming between Spezzia and the mainland, we entered the Gulf of Argos. The town of Spezzia is less picturesquely situated on a less rocky island; and has a long and narrow harbor similar to that of Hydra. The remainder of the afternoon was spent in steaming up the bay, with the bare rocks of Argolis on the right and the equally precipitous hills of Laconia on the other side, coming down to the very margin of the water. We approached Nauplia, and after turning a promontory, our steamer anchored directly between the town and the small fort of St. Nicolas or Bourtzi.

Nauplia is finely situated, and appears to great advantage from the water. The houses are usually built of white limestone, and have for the most part, roofs not very much inclined. They rise one above another on the side of a hill, forming the end of the promontory, which is crowned

by the fort of Itch-kali. But these fortifications are slight compared with the Palamede, a hill 740 feet in height, which commands the town to the southeast, and renders Nauplia one of the three strongest places in the Morea,—the Acrocorinthus and Monembasia being the others. It is singular that so remarkable a situation as this should not have been occupied in the times of the ancient Greeks by a populous town. But Nauplia is scarcely mentioned by historians or geographers. Towards the bay the town is protected by a high wall, which rises directly from the water's edge, and allows people to land in a single place. It is said, too, that a double chain used to be stretched from the little fort of Bourtzi to the mainland. It is no wonder that the Turks were foiled in the attempt to take this place by storm from the hands of the Greeks.

When we arrived off Nauplia, though it was not late in the afternoon, we found it raining violently, and therefore determined to remain on our steamboat for the night, and have the next morning for an excursion. The sun rose the next morning in a clear sky, revealing to us all the features of the surrounding landscape. To the northward we saw the low and level plain of Argos, with the mountains beyond, and on the east, before the high hills that ran southward as far as the eye could distinguish them, was the low, marshy ground, where now stand the few houses of Myli. That was the ancient Lerne, the haunt of the famous Lernian Hydra, whose slaughter was one of the great achievements of Hercules. If the Hydra, as German critics pretend, was only symbolical of the pestilential vapors from the marsh, which Hercules remedied by effectually draining it, the monster is as active as ever; for the neighborhood of Lerne, like all other low and boggy grounds in this warm country, is infested with fever and ague during nearly two thirds of the year.

After waiting a long time impatiently for our guide, who had gone off to the shore, Demetri at last appeared, and we repaired in a boat to the small landing place, where we found the horses which had been procured for us. We set off at once, without stopping to look about Nauplia, for the curious old ruined cities of Mycenæ, Tiryns, and Argos. We rode through a number of narrow streets, brushing past the little open shops, and now and then drawing our beasts near to the walls, in order to avoid a train of mules laden

* Howe's Greek Revolution p. 155, Note in fine.

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