Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/267

Rh 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, 🇬🇷,—"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