CHAPTER X ÆGINA MARBLES CALLED FOR BY BRITISH GOVERNMENT SHIPS- HIS "WAITING for me in Athens I found letters from my father detailing the measures he had taken in our favour concerning the marbles. He had moved the Prince Regent, who had given orders that 6,000l. and a free entry should be offered for the collection, and that a ship of war should be sent to fetch it. The offer might be considered equal to 8,000l. The ship might be expected at once. Here was a bitter disappointment to be unable to accept so splendid an offer, and a painful embarrassment as well; for I had led the Government, quite unintentionally, to suppose that they had only to send for the marbles to secure them. In consequence of which they were sending two great vessels at great expense, whereas I should now have to tell the captain not only that the marbles were no longer in Athensbut that they could not be handed over at all.” At this moment the Honourable Mr. North,1 an acquaintance already made in Constantinople, had turned up in Athens, and intended making an expedition to Egypt up the Nile as far as Thebes. He proposed to Cockerell and Foster to join him. Egypt had been part of the former's original scheme in planning his travels, and the opportunity of sharing expenses was not one to be lost. So it was agreed, and all preparations were made for the journey. They were to have started in the beginning of November, but were delayed by unfavourable winds. "I was a month in Athens, for the most part unprofitably, as all time spent in expectation must be. Every day we packed up, to unpack again when the wind went contrary. Finally, on November 29th, the wished-for wind came, and at the same time an express from Captain Percival of the brig-of-war Pauline 25, come for the marbles, called us down to the Piræus to see the ship sent by the Prince Regent. It was raining in torrents. Nevertheless we set out, with Haller and Linckh as well, to explain matters. I own my consternation was great when I saw the two big ships come on a bootless quest, for which I was in a way answerable. We had to tell Captain Percival not only that the marbles were now in Zante, but that even if they had been still here he could not have. Chancellor of the University of Corfu, later Lord Guilford. taken them, as they were now to be sold by auction; and, finally, as there was danger o Zante being at any time attacked by the French, to request him to remove them to Malta for greater security. At first Captain Percival was very indignant, not unnaturally; but when he had done his duty in this respect he was very civil and asked us to dine. Ale and porter, which I had not seen for so long, seemed delicious, and I drank so much of it that when, with North, Haller, and Stackelberg, I went aboard our Greek ship to bed, I slept like a stone till the morning drum on the Pauline woke me. The wind was blowing fresh from the north. We drew up our anchor; Haller and Stackelberg shook us by the hand and went ashore. And now for Candia and Egypt. Good port as the Piræus is once you are inside, to get in and out of it is very awkward. The brig, of course, well handled, had no difficulty; but we failed altogether at the first attempt, and at the next as near as possible got on to the rocks at the entrance. The Pauline laid to for us till we were out, and then sailed ahead much more quickly than we were able to follow. The day was bright, the wind was fair, and it was new and exhilarating to sail in such good company. At Ægina, where the temple stood up clear for us to see, the brig and the transport lay to, to land a pilot, and we went in front, but they soon caught us up again; and when they passed us, comparing their trimness and order with our state, I saw why a Greek always speaks with such awe of an English ship. Between Hydraa black and barren rock-and the mainland a storm, which we just escaped, swept along, and our captain seeing it, and thinking dirty weather might come on, steered towards Milo so as to be able to put in there in case of danger, and we parted with our convoy. Of our party I was the only one who was not ill, and appeared at dinner; and as the air was close below among my sick friends, I passed the night on deck in a seaman's coat. In the morning Candia was in sight, and by midday we were in Canea-only twenty-eight hours. As we drew near, the town, with its many minarets, all white and stretching along a flat, with dark mountains, peak above peak, in very fine forms behind it, had a most striking effect. From a great distance one could distinguish the large arched arsenals built by the Venetians for their galleys. The port is difficult to enter, and we nearly ran ashore here again by mistaking a breach in the wall which encloses the port for the entrance to it. It is a gap which has once been mended by the Turks, but it was so ill done that it fell in again immediately; and now it has been a ruin for some time and seems likely to remain one. We dropped our anchor ill too, so that the stem of our ship ran foul of some rocks, but no harm was done. We landed, dressed à la Turque, and I felt some 'mauvaise honte' in replying to the salutation of Turks who took us for their fellows, so I was not sorry to take shelter in the house of our consul, Sr. Capo Grosso, a native of Spalatro, with a pretty Tartar wife from the Crimea. It appears that besides himself there are very few Franks living here-only two families descended from the Venetians, and two other Catholic families, all kept in a perpetual tremor by the Turks, who are worse in Crete than anywhere. There are quarrels and murders every day between them and the Greeks. There never was such a state as the country is in. The military power consists of a local militia of janissaries and none other, so that their captains are able to terrorise the pasha into doing anything they please. But the militia, again, is composed of various regiments, and they are at variance with each other. So that you have both anarchy and civil war. Fancy, how nice! The Venetians long possessed the island, and the fortifications and public buildings, which are really very noble, as well as every other decent thing in the place, are of their production. Indeed, in walking through the city, judging by the look of the buildings, one might imagine oneself in a Frank country, except that they are all left to go to rack and ruin. The sea walls are so neglected that the port is almost destroyed. |