Thirty-FIVE YEARS IN THE EAST.
containing tallow) which could not be removed in consequence of their great weight.They were,therefore,obliged to cut the tallow with axes and large knives, and throw it piecemeal into the sea. This required hard labour, as the tallow was frozen. In this operation, our Greek captain (we had also a Turkish one) broke his yatagan (a large Turkish knife); and upon seeing that the water in the hold continued to increase,he gave up all hope, and retired to his little cabin in despair.There he fell on the knees before the image of his Havayia (the Virgin),and left the vessel to the care of heaven and the Turkish captain.Happily the tempest did not last long; the storm, which had come on so suddenly, left us with the same rapidity. Filled with hope, the day dawned upon us,when we descried the high mountains of Greece in the distance.The first rays of the sun, whose appearance infused new life and fresh courage into our breasts, arose majestically from the horizon, and beaming brightly, diffused warmth through our limbs, previously benumbed with cold.With the aid of the mizen-mast, and favoured by a gentile breeze, towards the evening of the same day we approached the shore, where we cast anchor. At the break of day on the following morning we disembarked, and thanked heaven for our deliverance. From thence we walked up about ten miles, and arrived at Apollonia,a city once celebrated among the Greeks,but now of little importance, and bearing the name of Sissopoli, to which place the vessel was brought to be refitte. I here found my companions,the Arnauts,who had taken up their quarters in a large coffee-house, where they literally roasted their frozen feet at a coal fire. Although they discontinued this in consequence of my warnings, it was too late; and I afterwards learned that several of them died in Constantinople of mortification. It was so hot in the coffee-house that I could not stay there long, and although I kept aloof from the stove, which was heated to redness, in order to avoid the sudden transition from cold to heat, I nevertheless caught a severe rheumatism in my feet, which tormented me for four months during the winter; with the approach of spring, however, it was radically cured. Amongst 5
