so eager to find remote causes, that we overlook those which are more natural and obvious; and in all these investigations, nothing is allowed for the waywardness of the human intellect and the fantasies of the human imagination. The prototypes, therefore, of these legendary monsters, we are determined to seek in nature, rather than in that creative intellectual power, which is never more fertile than in those periods when it is the least regulated by study and knowledge.

The fabulous and traditional history of Crete abounds with illustrations of the preceding remarks. We need not recall them to the reader, because they cannot fail to be suggested by the simple enunciation of the names of the personages we have given, and whose renown occupies so large a space in the poetry and annals of the earlier ages. We pass over, therefore, the race and deeds of the Titans, and the celestial dynasty, descended from Saturn the eldest of them; the reign of Minos and the life of Rhadamanthus, who were so distinguished for their justice, that they were called to preside over the tribunals in the infernal regions; of the exploits of Theseus and the death of the Minotaur; and of the other marvellous incidents with which this period abounds, and pause a moment to survey the condition of the island when authentic history first makes it known to us.

among the ancient warlike nations, and they rendered essential services in the retreat of the ten thousand, and swelled the army of Alexander in its triumphal progress through Asia. The secret springs of the Cretan policy are unknown, and we cannot, therefore, determine what motives induced the people to join the Persians against the Greeks. But the part they took for Mithridates, brought them into contact with the Romans, then on their way to universal conquest, and furnished the cause or the pretext for their subjugation. War was declared against them, and Mark Anthony, the father of the Triumvir, attacked them, but was defeated, and a great part of his fleet taken. Rome could pardon a conquered people, but never a victorious one; and Metellus was sent to repair the disaster and to vindicate the honor of the Roman arms. He debarked upon the island without opposition; but the Cretans soon collected their forces and maintained a vigorous resistance with varied success for three years, diversified by a species of civil war among the invaders, in which a portion of their troops under Octavius joined the islanders. However, after the loss of a large portion of the inhabitants, and the destruction of several cities, the country was at length subdued and added to the list of subjugated nations.

It then became a Roman province, and its fate for ages was bound up with that of the great metropolis. In the division of the empire, it fell to the lot of the eastern Emperors, and seems to have been comparatively flourishing, till it was almost ruined by a remarkable earthquake in the reign of Valentinian I.

In 803 it became connected with the Spanish Saracens, whose romantic adventures furnish such an interesting episode in the history of the various kingdoms now composing the Spanish monarchy. One of those family disputes, which so often marked the progress of these Moorish adventurers, had broken out; and the unsuccessful party dreading the vengeance of their rivals, and determined not to submit to their authority, embarked under their leader and sailed over the Mediterranean rather as pirates than as legitimate warriors. Attracted by the riches of Crete, they landed upon the island, but too feeble to conquer it, they ravaged the coasts, and safely retired with their plunder. But, tempted by the wealth of the country and its weak

It had then exchanged its monarchical for a republican government. Its executive, composed of ten magistrates, elected annually, performed similar functions to those of the Ephori at Sparta, and probably formed the model of the constitution of the latter. A council of twenty-eight senators, named for life, was a check upon the executive authority; but it is difficult to trace the respective limits of their power, or to ascertain how far a wise jealousy might be carried, before it degenerated into one of those political contests before which human freedom has so often fallen. Its duration of ten centuries is a shining proof of the wisdom of its practical operation; and antiquity vaunts the enlightened men and virtuous citizens it formed. It was praised by Plato and Strabo and copied by Lycurgus; it could have no higher eulogies. The notices which have come to us of its history and condition during this period are few and imperfect. It is evident, however, that the constitution of the island did not prevent internal dissentions; and different cities fought for superiority, withness, they returned the next year with a more formi all those incidents attending their alternate ascendancy and subjugation, which mark the history of the Grecian republics, continental and insular. To him, who seeks the causes of the decline and fall of these little interesting states, nothing can appear more contemptible than their differences, perpetually succeeding one another, nor more insensate than the course of the governments and people, forever sacrificing their peace to the childish passions of the moment, and thus preparing the way for the memorable fate which overtook them. In all history there is no chapter more interesting to the friends of equal governments, than that which describes the jealousy and dissentions of the Grecian people-nor any lesson more instructive than is exhibited by their consequences. They displayed so many bright spots during their passage over the horizon, that their memory will never fail to attract the admiration of mankind. But they set in a dark and troubled night. The Cretan archers and slingers were celebrated] and the impossible.

dable armament, and landed their armed colony. They made an incursion into the interior, and when they returned to the shore, they found their fleet in flames, and comprehended, that they had before them either a conquest or a tomb. Their leader frankly avowed, that this bold measure was his own, and replied to their remonstrances, that he had brought them to a land flowing with milk and honey, to their true country, where they would find wives to recompense them for those they had left. The conqueror of Mexico, when he burnt his fleet and showed his soldiers that they had to choose between the enemy and the sea, had perhaps read this lesson in the history of the roving bands which his own country had sent forth. There are times when the rashest measures are the wisest, and it is the province of true genius to appreciate the circumstances, and to seize the favorable moment for decisive action, taking care to distinguish between the difficult

The Grand Vizier Kiuperli, one of the most celebrated warriors known in the Ottoman annals, was then at the helm of the Turkish government, and after re

The Moslem leader reaped the reward of his bold | succors he furnished, though they delayed the final enterprise. He defeated the armies which the Greek result, yet could not change it. emperor, Michael, the stammerer, sent against him, and in less than three years established his domination over the island. He died some years later, and left to his successors a throne, the fruit of his wisdom and enter-pairing the disasters of his fleet, retook from the Veprise. The Saracens continued in possession of Crete about one hundred and thirty-eight years, when their power was utterly broken, and the country restored to the Greek empire. This union continued till 1204, when the western Europeans having conquered Constantinople, the gratitude or the policy of Baldwin, elected emperor, induced him to cede the island to the Marquis of Montferrat, one of the leaders who had aided in elevating him to his new dignity. The new possessor, however, wanting gold more than territory, sold his kingdom the same year to the republic of Venice, the merchant kings, who wielded equally the sword and the purse, ever ready to acquire from weak. ness or improvidence.

During four centuries and a half the Venitians retained possession of Candia, and marked their government by a wise and vigorous course of administration. They repelled the efforts of the Genoese and of the Turks to wrest it from them, and improved the condition of the inhabitants. Commerce was extended, the cities repaired, and traces of the prosperity of the country, at this period, have yet survived Turkish and Egyptian domination.

The power, wealth, and enterprise of the small republics of Italy, during the middle ages, furnish a fertile subject for contemplation. Their history places in prominent relief the advantages of freedom and of commercial industry; and Venice and Genoa, particularly, have left many monuments of their successful progress from the Adriatic to the sea of Asoph.

nitians their late conquests, and pushed his operations in Candia. The city of Candia had already been invested during some years, when the Grand Vizier himself, in 1667, after the most formidable preparations, debarked upon the island, with large reinforcements and an immense supply of all the materiel of war necessary to the most vigorous prosecution of the siege. Then commenced that death-struggle, for the possession of this important place, which arrested the attention of Europe, and which gave place to a series of the most romantic adventures in the whole history of human daring. The siege itself was the longest upon record. It continued uninterruptedly ten years. Tradition, indeed, has given to Troy a similar contest of equal duration. But there is little versimilitude in the general contour of the facts of the Trojan war; and imagi nation, rather than authentic history, has probably supplied us with the course of its operations. The conduct of the Greeks is utterly irreconcilable with the rudest principles of the art of war. Professing to attack a fortified city at some distance from the coast, they sit down upon the shore, and occasionally advance into the plain to meet the Trojans in the open field, or depart upon distant expeditions for the collection of prisoners and plunder. There were no lines of circumvallation, nor the slightest attempt to invest the city during almost the whole of the war. We looked carefully over the plain of the Troad, and whatever place may be selected for the site of the lost city, it is not the less obvious, that the hostile parties kept themselves But a power had now arisen in the east, destined to at a respectable distance from each other, and that the alarm the western nations; and the lion of St. Mark country was as open to the Trojans as the sea to the was called upon to defend, by strenuous efforts, one of Greeks. The theatre of operations was a level plain, the most precious jewels in his ducal crown. In 1645 enclosed between the ridges of Ida, the Archipelago, the Turks attacked the island, and landing with a for- and the Hellespont, having in its front the small island midable army, laid siege to the city of Canea. After a of Tenedos. It required a more vigorous imagination vigorous resistance this important place was taken, and than has fallen to our lot, to recognise in either of the the invaders extended their conquests in different di- little marshy streams which wind their way through it, rections. They had subjugated nearly half the island, the rivers so magniloquently described in the Iliad, and when their progress was arrested by some of the bloody with epithets not inapplicable to our own Ohio and revolutions in the seraglio, which have so often stained Mississippi. Indeed, the prestige of the plain and its the course of Turkish history. As the Moslem efforts associations was almost destroyed by our first access to relaxed, those of the Venitians were redoubled, and the shore. At a little distance from the place of landtheir fleets rode triumphant upon the Levant, and ac-ing, upon a rising ground, we perceived a Turkish viltually took possession of the island of Tenedos, which lage-approached it, as well to gratify our curiosity, as commands the entrance of the Dardanelles. But the to procure information. When almost upon the point fanaticism and perseverance of the Turkish character of entering, a number of persons made violent gesticuwere never more strikingly displayed than in the pro-lations, which we could not understand; but on the gress of this long contest. They succeeded in retaining their hold in Candia, and though the siege of its capital was interrupted, and offensive operations suspended, still the Venitians could not expel them. The latter, tired with this bitter and expensive war, proposed, through the mediation of the French ambassador at Constantinople, to divide the island between themselves and their enemies; but the offer was indignantly rejected, and under such circumstances, that Louis XIV, wounded in his pride, broke with the Turks and joined himself to the Venitians, The

arrival of our interpreter, who had fallen in the rear, we found the plague was raging there, and that the object of this friendly warning was to prevent our entrance. It was the fourth of July, when we roamed over this celebrated plain, recalling, at the same time, the birth of one of the youngest nations, and the death of one of the oldest.

But we must follow the struggles of the contending parties, under the beleaguered walls of Candia. The natural position of the city was strong, and its fortifi, cations had been carefully improved, till it had become

leaving a large number dead upon the field, among whom was their general, the Duke of Beaufort.

This disaster sealed the fate of the unfortunate city, and with it the domination of the Venitians over the island. Disunion soon sprung up among the discordant materials composing the defence, and one after another, the volunteers, abandoned a task which appeared hopeless, and retired as they could to their respective countries. The Turks, concentrating their energy, and encouraged by these circumstances, made a vigorous assault, which ended in putting them in possession of one of the principal defences, and in opening to them a passage in the heart of the city. It was determined, therefore, to surrender; and a capitulation was entered into, which was followed by the withdrawal of the Venitians, and the establishment of the Turkish power over the island.

one of the most powerful fortresses of the age, and it was defended by able and zealous officers, and by ten thousand men. And well it needed these advantages, for the Grand Vizier was a renowned warrior, and had invested the place with an army of eighty thousand men, and he had at his command the resources of a mighty empire. During more than two years the operations were carried on without intermission, and all the arts of attack and defence were mutually exhausted. Human life is nothing in a Moslem army; and the Turkish general sacrificed his soldiers without scruple, satisfied if he shed christian blood, and regardless at what expense. The fortifications were battered in breach and levelled; mines were exploded; trenches filled up, and assaults attempted. But christian fortitude still held out against Mahomedan fanaticism. The injuries were repaired as fast as made; and the most desperate attempts at escalade, led on by the Since that period it has had its full share in the miseGrand Vizier in person, were successfully met and re-ries entailed upon all the christian people subjected to pelled. The Pope was at length roused from inactivity or indifference, and began to regard with anxiety the prospect of the fall of one of the bulwarks of christendom before the Mahometan power. A crusade was preached-but alas! the times had changed, since Peter the Hermit excited the enthusiasm of Europe, and led the western nations to a long and terrible contest, as irrational in its objects, as it was fruitless in its results. However, many of the ardent youth of Europe, led away by a generous sympathy, embarked for Candia, and joined the Venitian forces; thus supplying, from time to time, the loss occasioned by disease and the sword. It was a period of peace, and many, who were desirous of military renown, coveted the glory of being taught in such a school. The engineers particularly sought this distinction,-and Vauban, among others, carried there the tribute of his experience.

the Mahometan yoke. The disasters, occasioned by this long contest, have never been repaired, and never will be, till the government of the island is in other hands.

It was divided into three Pashaliks, and subjected to three rapacious despots. In consequence of some internal dissentions between them, a band of the native mountaineers obtained permission to govern themselves. But this concession not being regarded with fidelity, frequent contests were the result, till in 1821, the Candiotes joined the other Greeks in their attempt to shake off the Turkish yoke. Not being able to subdue them, the Sultan ceded the island to Mehemet Ali, who soon obtained possession of it, and it yet forms an integral part of his dominions.

It was the 29th July, 1837, that emerging from the beautiful group of the Cyclades, we approached the ancient kingdom of Minos. We had run down from Notwithstanding the generous ardor thus displayed, Constantinople with a favoring breeze and delightful and the pertinacity of the defence, the Turks pressed weather, and had passed the various isles and islets on, and in the spring of 1669, after a series of desperate which "crown" this glorious "deep," and which have actions, succeeded in gaining possession of one of the been the theatres of events that will forever render principal outworks and reducing the fortifications al- them celebrated in the annals of mankind. All of most to a heap of ruins. Candia approached its fall, them are small specks, hardly distinguishable upon the when suddenly a French fleet, carrying seven thousand map of the world, and some of them are mere rocks; men, arrived to the aid of the defenders. They landed but there is a deathless interest attached to them, which on the very eve of an intended final assault; but their time cannot annihilate, and which will survive all the presence dispirited the Turks, and the contemplated revolutions, social or political, they are destined to uneffort was abandoned. The French, however, could dergo. This sentiment is a generous tribute to the not consent to defend the city behind its ramparts. dignity of human nature. It is not wealth, nor power, They immediately made a sortie, with all the ardor of nor numbers, which impose upon the imagination. It their nation, and with all the enthusiasm inspired by is none of these, nor the memory of these, which bring the nature of the war in which they found themselves the trans-atlantic pilgrim, from the bustle and business engaged. Their attack was so desperate and unex- and enterprise of a new world, to contemplate these pected, that the Turkish army was thrown into imme-scenes of former civilization and of present decay. No! diate disorder and suffered a heavy loss. Had the assailants then retired, and coolly undertaken the defence of the place, the respect taught by this vigorous effort, and by the reinforcement itself, would probably have paralyzed the operations of the enemy, and might have led to the relief of the city. But the morning light We had passed by Lemnos, Tenedos, Mitylene, the disclosed the small number of the christians, and at the ancient Lesbos, Scio, Delos, Syra or Syros, Paros, and moment when these were upon the point of carrying the various other islands, which deck these seas, and the Ottoman entrenchments, a powder magazine be- whose names and history are familiar to the reader; and longing to the Turks blew up, and the French, fearing we had stopped at several of them to examine their the whole ground was mined, retired in disorder, I condition and to run over their interesting remains,

he renders his homage to a nobler idol-to the memory of genius, industry, advancement in civilization, progress in the arts and sciences, and the cultivation of whatever can best promote the interests of human nature.

The compression, if we may so speak, of scenes and they are cultivated, is slovenly, the inhabitants indoevents, within a narrow compass, and the powerful lent, the houses mean and dirty, and the towns and emotions which this short voyage is calculated to excite, villages in a state of decay, and yet we visit them with may be appreciated by this striking fact, that at one the deepest interest. We visit them for what they point of our passage, we had in view at the same have been, and in spite of what they are. moment, Syra, Tinos, Andros, Delos, Mycone, Naxos, Paros, Antiparos, Siphanto and Serpho. We had passed in the distance the island of Patmos, the residence of St. John, and, if not the scene of the revelations made to him, the place where he wrote the Apo-end the most complete picture of desolation, which calypse which recorded them.

Canea occupies the site of the ancient Cydonia, the mother city of the island, renowned for its power and opulence, and which was the theatre of many interesting events in the history of Crete. But the modern town extends over a small part only of the ancient one. It is not the political capital of the island, but it is the place of the greatest commerce-and this preeminence it owes to its position in the most fertile region, to its port, where vessels of three hundred tons can enter, and to its vicinity, being within two miles to the bay of Suda, which affords safe anchorage to the largest ships.

steered for the bay of Suda, and entered it without | that precious gift of Providence, whose production is accident, mooring our noble frigate in its quiet waters. so essential to the inhabitants of the east. The plain This bay is one of the most magnificent ports in the leading to Canea is covered with a light sandy soil, and world, stretching inland about six miles, with a breadth abounds in water, which might be used for the purpose of three, capacious enough to contain the most power- of irrigating the crops, but which is almost wholly ful navy, and with sufficient depth of water for any neglected. There are some villages upon the route, vessel that floats. Its entrance is narrow, and divided and traces of a considerable population. by two small islands, on one of which is a little fortress, completely commanding the approach. We were told that the commanding officer was a bon-vivant, who loved wine better than the Koran; and that the captain of one of our armed vessels, who was desirous of entering the harbor, but who was prevented by the new quarantine regulations, which Mehemet Ali has recently adopted, found his way to the Egyptian's heart through a bottle of champagne, who, disregarding the fear of the plague and the fear of the Pasha, dispensed with the sanitary precautions and admitted his new friend to pratique without hesitation. Whatever opinion may be entertained respecting the progress of the Turks in the manners of the western Europeans in other respects, there is none in this, that the higher classes are fast acquiring the habit of drinking wine, and some of them a much stronger liquid. The penchant of the late Sultan for this indulgence, was well known through the empire, and could not fail to pro. duce by its example a powerful influence. Ibrahim Pasha is a confirmed toper; and if we should use a harsher word, we should probably convey to our readers a still juster idea of the extent to which he carries this habit. In Damascus, we found the table of the governor general of Syria loaded with wine; and his confidential friend and physician, a French gentleman, observed, significantly and jocosely, that his patron had fifteen thousand books in his library. We did not needing them, or from any higher motive, would waste his the arch look, which accompanied these words, to enable us to correct the errata; for books, read bottles of wine.

Still this practice is neither altogether general nor public, and we found that much prejudice was excited against those who indulged themselves too freely and openly. A respectable French officer, high in the confidence of the Pasha, has renounced christianity and embraced the Moslem faith. We found him in command of the ancient city of Sidon, and he is at this moment the second officer in the army of Ibrahim Pasha, which is defending the entrance of Syria against the Turks. His new religion must sit lightly upon him, and the devout Mussulmen do not appear to have much confidence in the faith of their proselyte. What sort of a follower of the prophet can he be ? said they; he never goes to the mosque; he drinks wine and eats pork. The days of Turkish fanaticism are indeed past. The time has been, and not long since, when his turban would not have protected his neck from the scimitar or the bowstring.

The entrance of the bay of Suda is from the east, and beyond is a high projecting point, which completely shelters it from the sea. To the north and the south are rugged hills, but to the west the break between the ridges continues and forms a level valley, which opens in about two miles at the city of Canea. There are two small villages upon the bay, occupying the declivity of the southern range of hills. The scenery is not uninteresting, relieved by little orchards of olive trees,

It was formerly strongly fortified by the Venitians, but a portion of the works have been demolished, and another portion is in a state of dilapidation. This neglect is of the less importance, as it is probable the future possession of the island will depend more upon the decision of diplomacy than upon military expeditions.

The harbor is small and obstructed by ruins, and not safe in a northern gale. The buildings are old and in a state of decay, and every thing shows that the hand of oppression has weighed heavily upon the wretched population.

Mehemet Ali has established a rigid police through his dominions. Whoever possesses sufficient knighterrantry to seek dangers, either for the sake of record

time if he stopped in either of the provinces subjected to the sway of the Egyptian Pasha. He chooses to be, through himself or his agents, the only oppressor in his government; a part, indeed, which he fulfils with admirable ability. But the traveller is safe, not only in his person, but he is generally protected from imposition and extortion. In traversing the island of Crete, he would have nothing to fear but the usual casualties of a journey and the fatigues to which he would be exposed by the state of the country and the manners of the inhabitants.

From the bay of Suda we sailed down the coast, passing Retimo, the third city in importance, after Candia and Canea, in the island. It was a place of much distinction in the time of the Venitians, and it is filled with the evidences of their power and wealth in every state of decay. It stands upon a low cape, but its harbor is not well sheltered, and the mole which formed it has been almost destroyed. The channel has been so filled up with an accumulation of sand, that no vessels drawing more than thirty tons can enter. Those of larger tonnage must remain in an open roadstead.

The population is about eight thousand, and its commerce is principally carried on with Greece and the islands of the Archipelago.

When we arrived at Candia, the capital of the island, we unfortunately found Mehemet Ali there, with a part of his fleet, anchored before the town. We say unfortunately, because he had just given, in his own person,