d to two English gentlemen some years ago,
who were immediately afterwards plundered by pirates, and the MS. thrown
into the sea. As I never heard of any Englishman having been at Mount
Athos since the days of Dr. Clarke and Dr. Carlysle, I could not make
out who these gentlemen were: probably they were Frenchmen, or Europeans
of some other nation. However, the idea of the pirates gave me a horrid
qualm; and I thought how dreadful it would be if they threw my Alexius
Comnenus into the sea; it made me feel quite uncomfortable. This
monastery was built by the Empress Catherine the First, of Russia--or,
to speak more correctly, repaired by her--for it was originally founded
by Saint Lazarus Knezes, of Servia, and the church dedicated to St.
Panteleemon the Martyr. A ride of an hour brought me to

XEROPOTAMO,

where I was received with so much hospitality and kindness that I
determined to make it my headquarters while I visited the other
monasteries, which from this place could readily be approached by sea. I
was fortunate in procuring a boat with two men--a sort of naval lay
brethren,--who agreed to row me about wherever I liked, and bring me
back to Xeropotamo for fifty piastres, and this they would do whenever I
chose, as they were not very particular about time, an article upon
which they evidently set small value.

This monastery was founded by the Emperor Romanus about the year 920; it
was rebuilt by Andronicus the Second in 1320; in the sixteenth century
it was thrown down by an earthquake, and was again repaired by the
Sultan Selim the First, or at least during his reign--that is, about
1515. It was in a ruinous condition in the year 1701; it was again
repaired, and in the Greek revolution it was again dismantled; at the
time of my visit they were actively employed in restoring it. Alexander,
Waywode of Wallachia, was a great benefactor to this and other
monasteries of Athos, which owe much to the piety of the different
Christian princes of the Danubian states of the Turkish empire.

The library over the porch of the church, which is large and handsome,
contains one thousand printed books and between thirty and forty
manuscripts in bad condition. I saw none of consequence: that is to say,
nothing except the usual volumes of divinity of the twelfth century. In
the church is preserved a large piece of the holy cross richly set with
valuable jewels. The agoumenos of Xeropotamo, a man with a dark-grey
beard, about