picturesque to be of a high
order. Neither was there wanting matter of admiration even in the night,
though we were suffering too much discomfort to be easily pleased by
mere pictures. The shore, in its way, afforded an unusual spectacle. The
town stands on high ground, and on both sides the line of coast is
formed by lofty cliffs, stretching far away into the distance. What of
the beauties of these depended on the light of day for development, were
reserved for our edification on the morrow. But the good people had
ornamented their country just then in a fashion more appropriate to
embellish the night than the day. Enormous fires were blazing on the
cliffs, which skirted the bay up which we were advancing,--if we may
apply so familiar a word to the conflagrations that met our sight. The
most active spirit of incendiarism had been afloat, for entire woods
were seen in a state of burning. We never discovered whether this
destruction was by accident, or of set purpose: if it were done by way
of obtaining charcoal, the price of that article one would think must
have fallen in the market. But as these fires blazed away in the clear
dry air of the night, they lit up the bay, and almost threw upon the
waters the dark shadow of our masts and yards. At first, when at some
distance, we had been disposed to account for the lurid appearance of
the heavens, by supposing that distance and refraction had effected a
cheat upon our senses. When we came nearer, the only thing we could
suppose was, that the whole country, was in the course of destruction.
It is hard to say whether the distance at which we anchored from the
shore was not too great to allow of the production on us of any sensible
effect from these fires: that we had any misgiving on the subject may
serve to show that they were enormous. I know that at the time we made
up our minds, that to their agency was to be attributed some portion at
least of the heat that oppressed us. The wind came off in gusts of
overpowering heat; not with that tepid influence that grumblers
sometimes denounce as a hot wind, but with the full sense of having come
from a baker's oven. At least we had a grand sight for our pains, and
therefrom reaped some consolation as we clustered panting on the deck.

I remember to have seen something in this way before, though on a
smaller scale, and that was in the island of Euboea. Once in my life,
I had a very near view of the recent scene of such a conflagra