le and
confusion.
The second fire broke out in the following night. Every one had
retired to sleep, but the fire-watch rushed through the street,
knocking with his iron-mounted staff at the doors of the houses and
waking the people. I sprang terrified out of bed, ran to the
window, and saw in the direction of the fire a faint red light in
the sky. In a few hours the noise and redness ceased. They have at
last begun to build stone houses, not only in Pera but also in
Constantinople.
I left Constantinople on the evening of the 7th of October, by the
French steamer Scamander, one hundred and sixty-horse power.
The passage from Constantinople to Smyrna, and through the Greek
Archipelago is described in my journey to the Holy Land, and I
therefore pass on at once to Greece.
I had been told, in Constantinople, that the quarantine was held in
the Piraeus (six English miles from Athens), and lasted only four
days, as the state of health in Turkey was perfectly satisfactory.
Instead of this, I learnt on the steamer that it was held at the
island of AEgina (sixteen English miles from Piraeus), and lasted
twelve days, not on account of the plague but of the cholera. For
the plague it lasts twenty days.
On the 10th of October we caught sight of the Grecian mainland.
Sailing near the coast, we saw on the lofty prominence of a rock
twelve large columns, the remains of the Temple of Minerva. Shortly
afterwards we came near the hill on which the beautiful Acropolis
stands. I gazed for a long time on all that was to be seen; the
statues of the Grecian heroes, the history of the country came back
to my mind; and I glowed with desire to set my foot on the land
which, from my earliest childhood, had appeared to me, after Rome
and Jerusalem, as the most interesting in the earth. How anxiously
I sought for the new town of Athens--it stands upon the same spot as
the old and famous one. Unfortunately, I did not see it, as it was
hidden from us by a hill. We turned into the Piraeus, on which a
new town has also been built, but only stopped to deliver up our
passports, and then sailed to AEgina.
It was already night when we arrived; a boat was quickly put out,
and we were conveyed to the quay near the quarantine station.
Neither the porters nor servants of this establishment were there to
help us, and we were obliged to carry our own baggage to the
building, where we were shown into empty rooms. We could not even
get a
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