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 famous for the production of a fine oil from their olives, which is
the staple commodity of the island, and of which they export
considerable quantities. By all accounts, nature, unassisted, may claim
the praise of this produce, for they are said to be careless
manufacturers. We went into one or two of the [Greek: ergasteria] to
witness the process of compression, but could not take it upon our
veracity to utter an opinion anent them. At least they seem in a fair
way to improve their wares; for the new consular agent of France (whom,
by the way, we took to his Barataria) is especially knowing in this
line, and hopes to produce, in a short time, oil that shall be equal to
that of France or Lucca.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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