Englishman to look upon the mere natives of any place to
which he may come in his travels, as cheats and ignoramuses, that we, as
a matter of course, and most complacently, admitted the natives _en
masse_ and every where to that rating. In the course of our vagaries we
stumbled on the pretty island of Mytilene, in the very piping hours of
summer. Very cool and pleasant did it look to us shipmen, hanging down
its umbrageous olive groves nearly to the water's edge--and very
pleasant should we have found it to be, had we been content to defer our
landing till the authorised hour of eventide. But besides that the place
looked so inviting, we felt bound to give way to a little enthusiasm at
this approach to the birthplace of the lady who gave Horace the model of

"Jam satis terris nivis atque dirae" &c.

so nothing could hold us in from immediate disembarkation, and a cross
country ride. We went right across from one harbour to another--for it
has two, which between them nearly bisect the island. But so frightful
was the heat, that nothing but youth and English blood exempted us from
the penalty of fever. Some of the party were very nearly knocked up
mid-way; and we should scarcely any of us have managed to get back to
the ship as we did, had it not been our fortune to meet a resting-place
in the village of Loutri. Such attempts as this are the causes of the
sad casualties that we occasionally find happening to Eastern
travellers. How many have paid with their lives the penalty of an
unseasonable journey in Syria, especially on the coast between Beyrout
and Jerusalem. Only choose well your time, and you may proceed in
perfect security, so far as the dangers of nature are concerned. Any
attempt at forcing a journey is a folly; and a folly of which the
correction will come with the first experiment, if it leave to the
person any future opportunity of sublunary conduct.

But no one should mention Mytilene without saving a word or two in
praise of its beauty. All shrivelled up as we were by the heat--for we
were almost past the sudatory stage--we drank in some refreshment from
the scenery. Port Olivet has quite the appearance of a lake, and it is
only when quite at the spot that you perceive the real nature of the
locality. The hills around are finely shaded; and the masses of
olive-trees assumed, in the then lurid glare of sky and water, that
shadowy appearance that we used to see in Turner's pictures. They are
very famou