Travels and Discoveries in the Levant/Volume 1/Letter XVI

by Charles Thomas Newton

XVI.

Rhodes, June 20, 1853.

I had lately an unexpected visit from my friend Mr. Finlay, of Athens, the well-known author of the "History of the Byzantine Empire." Just after I had installed him in my house, we got an unexpected opportunity of making a trip to Scio, in a Turkish steamer going with despatches to the Governor-General of the Archipelago, and so started forthwith, accompanied by Mr. Alfred Biliotti. As our steamer only made six knots an hour, we did not reach Cos till the day after we had left Rhodes. Touching there for an hour, we then went on to Scio, where we were most hospitably and kindly entertained by the British vice-consul, M. Vedova.

His account of Scio was not very encouraging. All its ancient glories seem to have departed. Trade there was none; British ships or subjects none; business for the vice-consul none. The luxuriant fruit-trees, for which the island had been so celebrated, had been cut down by the ever to be remembered great frost two years ago, which furnished materials for the despatches of all the consuls in the Archipelago during a whole winter. It is supposed that such a frost had not been for fifty years, because it destroyed trees of that age.

Scio has a rich level shore, out of which bold bleak mountains rise abruptly; but seen from the sea, it has not the beauty of Mytilene, from the absence of olive-trees on the hill-sides.

We went over the castle, of which the fortifications had a more modern character than those of Mytilene and Rhodes. I noticed a great number of long brass guns like those at Rhodes, which doubtless belong to the period when this island was occupied by the Genoese. On one was the inscription,—

CAPITAN. AN
DRONICO DE
SPINOSA NA
TVRAL DE RODI

MDLIII.

I also noticed in the castle the pedestal of a statue to a Roman emperor. But no other trace of Greek antiquities was to be met with there.

"We went to see the Governor-General of the Archipelago, Ishmael Pasha, a nephew of the famous Ali Pasha, of Jannina, and found him in a beautiful kiosk in the environs of Scio, surrounded by orange-trees and fountains. He is now making the round of the islands, and begged me to report to him any wrong doings which might fall under my observation in this tour. He makes profession of a wish to administer his pashalick well; but, unfortunately, it is hardly possible for a Turkish governor to do more than to wish to do his duty. Between the wish and its execution his agents are sure to interpose so many difficulties that all honesty of purpose is thwarted. While I was with him, in came two Greek primates of Scio, with many genuflections and προσκυνήματα. We began talkmg about the island, and I asked the two piimates why they did not make proper roads and bridges in order to convey the produce of the interior to the ports. The two venerable gentlemen said that they thought that the roads which were good enough for their ancestors were good enough for them; whereupon the Pasha asked whether Adam invented steam and the electric telegraph,—a question which puzzled them considerably, and which, I thought, was rather a creditable remark for a Turk to utter.

The town of Scio is very Italian in the character of its architecture, which has a solidity very rare in the Levant. In the suburbs, the fine houses built by the old merchants still stand in roofless and windowless desolation, just as the Turks left them after the Greek revolution, when Scio was utterly sacked. Up to that period its commerce was of great importance, and in the old capitulations made between the Porte and English monarchs Smyrna and Scio are mentioned together as the two principal ports where English trade was carried on in Turkey. We learn from a MS. in the Cotton collection in the British Museum,⁹⁷ that Henry VIII. appointed a certain John Baptist Giustiuiani his Consul in Scio at the time when it was still held by the Genoese. This ancient predecessor of M. Vedova seems to have been somewhat wanting in zeal for the protection of English commerce, and His Majesty therefore administers to him a mild reprimand, enjoining more activity in the performance of his duties for the future.

At Scio I parted with Mr. Finlay and, not hearing of any antiquities in the villages, set sail in a Greek boat bound for Patmos with a cargo of Sciote dolci and other "notions." In fine weather a cruise in the Archipelago in one of these small craft is very pleasant. All the cooking is managed by lighting a fire on the shingle which serves for ballast at the bottom of the boat. At night the same shingle served as our bed, with a shaggy capote for a mattress and a carpet-bag for a pillow.

It is at sea that the Greek appears in his most genial and agreeable aspect, provided always that the weather is fine. I noticed that the sailors had a curious way of calculating the hour by measuring with their hand the distance of the sun's disk from the horizon. Every finger's breadth, according to their notion, represented a quarter of an hour of daylight. I suspect this is the true explanation of the phrase in Alcaeus, πίνωμεν, δάκτυλος ἁμέρα,—"Let us drink, there is still an inch of daylight."

The crew was a very merry one; they were all what the Greeks call Palikaria, or good fellows. As we got near Patmos, they grew nervous about pirates, as there is no part of the Archipelago more suspected than these unfrequented and landlocked channels, full of harbours and lurking-places. I had a sort of vague confidence in my little flag, and thought that the majesty of the name English Consul would be sufficient to repel any attack, but felt at the same time certain misgivings, as it is now only two years since the Smyrna brigands took the Dutch Consul prisoner in his own garden, and made him pay an immense ransom. However, all went well with us; and after a great deal of becalming and rowing, in which I joined, to the great astonishment of the sailors, we got to Patmos.

I had two objects in going to Patmos: first, to see manuscripts in the monastery, as the collection has been a celebrated one; secondly, to get hold of a certain Greek captain, who was hiding in this island after having committed a barratry. One of his crew was an Ionian, whom I am detaining at Rhodes till the captain is tried; hence, his capture is a matter of interest to me. I arrived at Patmos provided with a stern and peremptory letter from the Governor of the Archipelago, ordering the Patmiotes to give up the captain, and warning them that the Pasha was perfectly aware that he was concealed somewhere among them. Patmos, like all the small islands in this part of the Archipelago, is governed by a Mudir and Demarchia, or corporation of three or four of the richest Greeks of the place, who, being the richest are said to be generally the most dishonest. If there are no Turks in the island, the Mudir is a mere symbolic representation of Turkish authority; the Greeks rule. Such is the case at Patmos, which is an island full of monks and pirates.

My first step in landing in this den of thieves was to call upon the only representative of consular authority in the place, an old Hellenic consular agent, who had given information at Rhodes about the barratry. The poor man was overjoyed to see me, and declared that he never ventured to stir out of his house for fear of being assassinated on account of having denounced certain Patmiotes, a statement the truth of which I had no means of ascertaining, though such is the condition of some of these islands that it is not improbable. On my telling him that I had a letter from the Governor to the Demarchia, he begged me, instead of calling on the Mudir as I had proposed, to remain in his own house and summon the Demarcliia into my presence there and hear the Pasha's letter. I thought, as Hotspur thought of Owen Glendower's spirits, "but will they come?" However, I despatched my cavass from the port to the town, and summoned them in unperious style. Rather to my surprise they all came through a broiling June sun. I presented the Pasha's letter; it was read; the Mudir gave a start, and turned a little pale when he heard the mandate; the Greeks preserved that perfect self-possession which distinguishes this race when some great occasion calls forth their enormous capacity for lying. When the letter was finished, the Mudir said never a word; but one of the Primates, a smooth-tongued gentleman, at once delivered an answer all ready-made. With many professions of desire to obey the command of the Pasha, he said that in this instance it was impossible to put his orders in execution, because the man in question, not being at Patmos, could not possibly be sent, as the Pasha requested, to Rhodes. All this was so plausibly and logically worded that I was taken quite aback, and said, "There is the Pasha's letter, answer it as you think proper; he has been informed, and I have been informed, that the man is here; you say he is not. We shall know how to deal with you if you are deceiving us." The Greeks, not the least disconcerted, began to overpower me with civilities. On my proposing to go up to the town to see the monastery, they forthwith offered mules, and invited me to dine with them. Knowing what all this meant, I broke away very unceremoniously from their escort, and managed to get up the steep ascent to the town about five minutes before them. In a case of this kind, the people who wish to mislead you never lose sight of you for a second during the day, for fear anybody else should get the opportunity of putting in an observation. My manœvre of walking up the hill alone enabled the Mudir to get hold of Biliotti for a moment, when he whispered to him in Turkish, "The man is here, but I did not dare say so before the Demarchia."

When I got up to the town, I called on the Archbishop of Rhodes, who is now staying at Patmos, and found him in a curious old room, where were two or three faded pictures in the school of Canaletto. I inquired how they came there, and was told that there had once been a great trade between Venice and Patmos. The Archbishop received me with open arms, and pronounced a magnificent éloge, in classical well-rounded phrases, on my philanthropy, my knowledge of ancient Greek, my love for archeology, and a variety of other merits, till, at last overcome by his honeyed words, I began to say to myself, "What a nice old gentleman this archbishop is; after all, perhaps, he is not quite as bad as Mr. Kerr described him to be. Perhaps my predecessor was somewhat too severe when he told him to his face that he and all the other bishops were a disgrace to the Greek Church; it requires to study the manners of these people." Alas for my prepossession in his favour of this venerable hierarch. I did not then know, what I was told shortly afterwards at Calymnos, that the captain I was in quest of was at the moment of my visit hiding in the Archbishop's house.

When I left Patmos, I wrote to the Governor-General, reporting all that I had seen and heard, and telling him, at the same time, that the people of Patmos set his authority at defiance, and that I hoped and expected that he would put it to rights. If he is really in earnest, he will forthwith send a ship of war to bring away all the Demarchia to Rhodes, and will keep them prisoners there till the concealed captain is found; but as the Patmiotes are rich, there is still a chance for them. They can buy the captain of the ship of war, who will then go back to Rhodes, with some lame story explaining why he could not execute the Pasha's orders; or, if they have a large command of money, they will buy the protection of some great man at Constantinople, and thus thwart the Pasha in his endeavours to bring them to justice.

I have given this little anecdote more space in my letter than perhaps it deserves, in order to show that maladministration in Turkey is not exclusively confined to Turkish officials. In those islands of the Turkish Archipelago where the Greeks are allowed to administer their own affairs, they too often abuse their municipal rights by protecting brigands, pirates, and every description of rogue. In such islands it is not so much the Pasha but the Greek Primate who is looked on by the people as their oppressor. Iniquity, incorporated in the form of a Mejlis or Demarchia, is a many-headed monster; formerly, the whole guilt of the administration rested on the Turkish governor, and the evil was removable whenever the Sultan thought proper to remove his head from his shoulders. Now, the Greek primates in those islands where the Greek population predominates set the mandates of the Pasha at defiance, unless he backs these mandates by measures not quite reconcilable with the Tanzimat. The only certain result of an attempt to punish crime, is that the delinquent is thus compelled to spend a large sum in purchasing protection from justice. Thus, probably, when the Demarchia of Patmos, the Director of the Quarantine there, and the Archbishop of Rhodes, have sent in their "little accounts," the captain will have to disgorge nearly the whole of his booty acquu-ed through the barratry. I was much disappointed with the MSS. at Patmos. M. Gruerin, the author of the memoir on Rhodes already cited, has recently visited the monastery, and made a catalogue of the library. I read through this list and called for all the classical MSS., and was shown only four, of no great antiquity and in bad condition. I found a Greek lexicon by some unknown Byzantine scholar.⁹⁶ In the fly-leaf was a curious note, stating that the people of Cyrene dedicated a statue of their king, Battus, holding in his hand the silphium, a plant which supplied the staple of their commerce, and which is represented on the coins of Cyrene.

This note being evidently an extract from some ancient author, I was at first in hopes that it was unedited; but find that it is given in the Scholiast to the Plutus of Aristophanes, 1. 925.

I also noticed a MS. of Sophocles, on thin parchment, containing only the Ajax and Electra, with occasional interlinear glosses in red ink; a Diodorus Siculus, on parchment, of the 15th century, wanting beginning and end; and a Libanius, on paper, of the 15th century, wanting beginning, and in bad condition.

The library is rich in Biblical and Patristic MSS., many of which have fine illuminations. Among these may be specially mentioned the Book of Job, probably of the 7th or 8th century, written in uncial characters; some splendidly-illuminated copies of the Gospels from the 10th to the 12th century; and a copy of Origen on the Pentateuch and Prophets, of the 9th century. There is here also a fine collection of bulls granted by Byzantine emperors, ranging from the end of the 11th century to the taking of Constantinople, A.D. 1453, which, were shown to Ross, but which I did not see.⁹⁹

That quaint old traveller Sandys, describing the monks at Patmos in the year 1610, stigmatizes them as "ignorant of letters, studious for their bellies, and ignominiously lazy, unless some few that give themselves to navigation, and become indifferent good pilots.¹⁰⁰ I cannot say that the lapse of more than two centuries has added much to their erudition, though it may have somewhat abated their love of good cheer, now unknown in Patmos. They read the most crabbed abbreviations in the MSS. with facility,—more than this I cannot say for their learning; there was not one of them that had ever discovered that their Sophocles contains only two plays.

The monastery of Patmos is an ecclesiastical fortress, built at a period when the monks dreaded pirates instead of protecting them. It is consequently very strong, towering far above the town, and overlooking the landlocked harbours below; the scenery is very wild and has a treeless and desolate beauty, unlike that of any other Greek island which I have seen. The monastery is built in a succession of terraces with stone roofs, and is raised to a great height; the summit of the battlements commands an extensive view. In this panorama we saw, on the mainland, a rocky range of mountains above Scala Nova. All round the horizon seaward was a succession of islands,—

"Spread far amid the melancholy main."

I distinguished Samos, Fourmi, Nicaria, Naxos, Mykonos, Tenos (hardly visible), Levitha, Stampalia, Cos, Calymnos, Leros, Lepso.

Half-way down the hill is the Monastery of the Apocalypse, where St. John is supposed to have written the Revelations. Here is a natural cavern, in which a church has been built in two compartments. In one of these is a rent in the rock, where, according to the local tradition, the earthquake split it while St. John was praying. The voice which he heard in his vision is said to have issued from this rent. I was also shown the hole in the rock whence he hung during his prayer. At the east end was a rude picture representing the scene described at the beginning of the Revelations, with the printed text of the first chapter pasted at the side to explain the picture.

The monastery of Patmos was founded in the 11th century by a holy man named Christodulos, from Nicæa, in Bithynia.

The golden bull of the Emperor Alexius Comnenus, by which the island of Patmos is granted to Christodulos, is still preserved in the monastery, and bears date A.D. 1080.

It would appear from the legend of the saint, that he founded his monastery on the site of a temple of Artemis, whose statue he took care to destroy on his arrival. From an interesting but mutilated inscription at Patmos, published by Ross, we learn that this deity was the Scythian or Tauric Artemis. In the original bull, granted by Alexius Comnenus, no women were allowed to reside on the island; but it was found necessary in a short time to relax these hard conditions.¹⁰¹ At present, on the contrary, the male population being all either monks or seafaring men, the destitution of the ladies is nearly as great as that of the wives of the Greek warriors during the Trojan war. The island is very barren, and nourishes nothing but goats. The women maintain themselves by knitting stockings. Their costume is very curious; and they seem to be a different race from the other islanders in the Sporades. They wear very quaint high head-dresses.

From Patmos we went to Calymnos, the ancient Calymna, a barren rocky island, the inhabitants of which maintain themselves principally by sponge-diving. Here I purchased a quantity of small silver coins, which seem to have been struck at Miletus, but have been attributed to Hekatomnos, Prince of Caria,

because the letters ΕΚΑ appear on the larger specimens. I was told that they were found at a place called Gherelli, three hours to the north of Budrum.¹⁰²

The primates of Calymnos received me very kindly, and showed me all the inscriptions and other antiquities known to them.

We visited the church of Christos, built on the site and with the ruins of the Temple of Apollo. On the shore I was shown a stelé with a decree of the people of Calymna in honour of the people of Iassos, in Caria. This interesting document was destined to be built into a church now erecting.¹⁰³

In a garden called Blyko, near the harbour, were a number of columns and the angle of a cornice, recently dug up. On three sides of this cornice were inscribed grants of freedom to certain slaves by their masters. These documents were made out in the name of the Stephaneophoros, a local magistrate.¹⁰⁴

Our caique went before the wind from Calymnos to Cos in two hours and a half. The distance I was told was twenty-five miles, and the pace very good for a caique. The scenery all round us was very picturesque. On every side were jagged mountain-lines which seemed to have been convulsed into fantastic forms by some primeval force. Behind us were some small islands near Leros, on our right Cos, on our left a stern headland near Myndos [Gumischlu], and straight ahead the high mountain-ridge which terminates in Cape Crio. This wild scenery is far more impressive when seen from a caique than from the deck of a steamer.

When we got to Cos, the wind blew so strong that our anchor would not hold, and we were driven right across the bows of a larger vessel, and nearly impaled on her bowsprit. At present, the anchorage is in an open road. In antiquity there was here a snug little harbour, which has been gradually filled up by sheer neglect, as is the case with many other ports in the Archipelago.

I found here a very intelligent Greek merchant, named Demetri Platanista, who had a small collection of inscriptions and fragments of sculpture in his house. One of these inscriptions is a decree of the people of Cos in reference to arbitrators whom they had invited from some neighbouring city to decide matters in litigation, according to a frequent practice among the ancient republics. The name of one of the Egyptian Ptolemies appears in this inscription, probably that of Philadelphus, who was born at Cos. Another fragment of an inscription contains part of a list of contributors to some public loan. Among the fragments of sculpture was the right thigh of a statuette of Perseus, against which the head of Medusa rests, grasped by the hair in his right hand. This is in a very good style. There was also the torso of a Venus tying her sandal, similar to that in the British Museum.¹⁰⁵

I purchased at Cos a round buckler of marble 14 inches in diameter, with a hole behind, by which it has been fastened by an iron pin, probably to the wall of a temple. It is inscribed "Hegesikrates, the son of Hegesikrates, (dedicates this) to the gods who led the army." I also purchased the torso of a statuette of an hermaphrodite, of Parian marble, and in a good style. But my great prize was a silver coin of Termera, in Caria, the only one known of this town.

On one side is a kneeling figure of Herakles, with the letters ΤΥΜΝΟ. On the reverse, the legend ΤΕΡΜΕΡΙΚΟΝ round a lion's head. The style is rather archaic. Termera was a fortress of Caria opposite to Cos; and there can be little doubt that the isolated rock of Chifoot Kalessy represents its site. Herodotus mentions a certain Histiaios, tyrant of Termera, who was the son of Tymnos. It is probable that the letters ΤΥΜΝΟ on the coin are the name of a second Tymnos, son of this Histiaios. Termera was originally occupied by the Leleges, who thence made piratical incursions into the island of Cos.¹⁰⁶ The coin which I was so fortunate as to acquire, was found by a Calymniote diver on the coast opposite to Cos, and passed from his hands into those of an Ionian merchant, who was so obliging to part with it to me for a very reasonable sum, "to please his Consul," as he said.

We visited the celebrated fountain of Burinna, distant an hour and a half west of Cos. An ancient aqueduct descends from this source to the town. The fountain issues in a copious stream from a rock. A circular vaulted chamber, still called by its ancient name, Tholos, is built over it. This chamber is 9 feet 4 inches in diameter, and is built of large squared blocks, without mortar. The vault is Egyptian, like that of the Treasury at Mycenæ, the stones laid in hoinzontal courses, advancing one beyond the other, and having their inner faces curved. It has a circular aperture at the top to admit light, which has been restored with mortar. One of the largest of the blocks was in length 3 feet 4 inches by 1 foot 6 inches.

Over the aperture of the tholos, outside, is a large square stone pierced in the centre. A trap-door was anciently fitted to this stone, as is seen by the holes for the hinges, made on two opposite sides.¹⁰⁷

The tholos communicates "with the aqueduct through a doorway 6 feet high, formed by an Egyptian vault of advancing stones, between which is a single wedge-shaped stone.

The gallery runs on 17 feet to a second doorway, similar to the first. Through this first length the roof is similar to that of the doorways. From the second doorway the passage takes a bend, and runs for 15 feet 5 inches wdth the same structure of roof; the walls are ancient, but restored with mortar. From the distance of 15 feet 5 inches onwards for 48 feet, the gallery is built of smaller blocks, and with a regular arch. From this point to the end 28 feet, the roof is formed by a single horizontal stone.

The tholos communicates wath the open air about half-way up its height by a second gallery, roofed with single blocks, which probably served for ventilation. This fountain seems to be the one mentioned by Theocritus, which, according to a legend, was discovered by Chalcon, king of Cos.¹⁰⁸ The tholos reminded me of the Tullianum near the Capitol at Rome,¹⁰⁹ and from the style of the masonry is probably of high antiquity.

I arrived in this island just in time to lay hands on an Ionian thief, immediately after he had been caught in a shop, with a false key in one hand and a bundle of goods in the other. Cos being within my consular district, I exercised summary jurisdiction on this offender, and having convicted him on the evidence of two credible witnesses, a rare felicity in a Turkish trial, put him into my caique, and carried him off prisoner to Rhodes. The Caimacam of Cos, an old Janissary, was very anxious to intercede for him, and held me a long discourse on the frailty of humanity generally. I inquired why the Turk took such an interest in the case, as the prisoner was too poor to buy him, and was told that he was the bitter enemy of the prosecutor!

The part of the Archipelago from which I have just returned has as yet been but little explored. It lies off the great high road of steamers and tourists to Constantinople. The manners of the people have been far less affected by European influence than in islands like Mytilene, or Scio, which have maintained a more constant intercourse with Smyrna. For the same reason the Sporades appear to promise a very productive field for archgeological research.

On my return to Rhodes, I found everybody full of warlike ideas. To-morrow's post may bring us decisive news. There is a general presentiment that this will be a year pregnant with mighty events for Turkey. The Turks show great resolution outwardly; but we live in an atmosphere of fear and expectancy; the word Russia is in every Turk's heart and on every European's lips.