After leaving Smyrna, we sailed for the Piræus. We stayed some little time, refitting; and we mids got up regattas, hiring the sailing boats of the Piræus, and racing round Salamis bay and islands. Here it was that I derived my first taste for boat-sailing, which in my late years led to so much yacht-racing in England. The snug harbour of the Piræus always had a charm for me. I have often visited Athens since those days, both in men-of-war and in a private capacity; and I know of no better station to be on while in command of a ship. Your limits generally extended from Corfu to Chalchis. Corfu and its islands are perfectly charming, and afford excellent wild shooting. I have made very considerable bags in those parts; and was, luckily, once under the command of a genuine sportsman, Admiral Hobart Pasha. We used to shoot great quantities of game in the Morea, all round in the bays of those lovely stretches of country. Fifty or sixty couple of woodcock fell to our guns on several occasions, when you just happened to hit off a flight of these birds. Snipe also abounded, and wild duck and pigs were to be got. Indeed, in all the bays there was always plenty of game, and in the higher lands the red-legged partridge. Hobart was a genuine sportsman, and a wonderfully good shot. Every day of the week he used to get some shooting, devoting Sundays to consular work, or to whatever business the ship was sent to do: shooting was more to his taste. We had still better sport up a river called the Jahun, in Iscanderoun Bay. We were returning to our ship on one occasion, having been tenting-out up this fine river for ten days. Our two boats were well laden with game, besides wild boar. Unfortunately, the boat containing Hobart and myself filled and swamped as we were crossing the bar. We managed to touch hard sand when we stepped out; but it was touch-and-go, as the current out of the river was at a great pace, and the breakers and surf were running very high. Thank God, we all escaped; but we lost our boat, game, guns, dogs, and all. The poor brutes swam in our eddy as long as they could; but soon they became exhausted, and drifted away to sea, to be drowned.