present; but for this once I
must say that you may imagine the bluest blue you know--the sky, lapis
lazuli, sapphires, the eyes of some children, the Bay of Naples--and the
Ionian Sea is bluer than any of these. And nowhere else have I seen such
dear, queer little foam sprays. They are so small and so very white on
the blue, and they curl over the surface of the water even when the sea
is perfectly calm, which makes me call them queer. You meet them miles
from land. And all the shores are whitened with their never-ceasing
play. It is a pygmy surf.

It was eleven o'clock in the morning when our steamer reached her
anchorage before the island town. Immediately she was surrounded by
small boats, whose crews were perfectly lawless, demanding from
strangers whatever they thought they could get, and obtaining their
demands, because there was no way to escape them except by building a
raft. Upon reaching land one forgets the extortion, for the windows of
the hotel overlook the esplanade, and this open space amiably offers to
persons who are interested in first impressions a panoramic history of
two thousand five hundred years in a series of striking mementos. Let me
premise that as regards any solid knowledge of these islands, only a
contemptible smattering can be obtained in a stay so short as mine.
Corfu and her sisters have borne a conspicuous part in what we used to
call ancient history. Through the Roman days they appear and reappear.
In the times of the Crusaders their position made them extremely
important. Years of study could not exhaust their records, nor months of
research their antiquities. To comprehend them rightfully one must
indeed be an historian, an archaeologist, and a painter at one and the
same time, and one must also be good-natured. Few of us can hope to
unite all these. The next best thing, therefore, is to go and see them
with whatever eyes and mind we happen to possess. Good-nature will
perhaps return after the opening encounter with the boatmen is over.

From our windows, then, we could note, first, the Citadel, high on its
rock, three hundred feet above the town. The oldest part of the present
fortress was erected in 1550; but the site has always been the
stronghold. Corinthians, Athenians, Spartans, Macedonians, and Romans
have in turn held the island, and this rock is the obvious keep. Later
came four hundred years of Venetian control, and I am ashamed to add
that the tokens of this last-named p