Ration of the fea happened not -many yearsago; ‘that the water
thrice,mounted aboye this. |ree,. and the tall -pliff behind it j
that, fome of the branches vfetc torn off by its violence.; and
that the .people fled to the mountains.
A bove the fea is a town called Boftitza, whiefiftands on or
near the 'fite of iEgium; for by the plane-tree ■ is a plentiful
fource of excellent water, ftreaming copioufly from ten or more
mouths of, ftone; and many tranfparent fprings rife on the
beach. JEgium is defcribed as retired from the fhore, which
afforded plenty of water agreeable to drink from the fountain
and pleaflng to the eye.
JBg iv m was a1 city-of no'fnean note, in the region called
j®gialos and afterwards Adhaia. It had a theatre and temples,
fome near the fea. ' One was of Jupiter ftyled Homagyrius,
becaufe Agamemnon affembled there the principal chieftains o f
Greece before the expedition to Troy. It was: for many ages
the feat of the Achaean congrdfs. The Turks"burned .Mptim
in 1536, and put the inhabitants to the fwOrd, or carried them
away into flavery.
It continued to blow until it was dark, when a calm enfued.
We proceeded, before the dawn o f day, about- two miles toward
the mouth ’o f the gulf, which is formed by the promontories
once called Rhium. and Antirhium. The wind*- letting in
again, met us, and we tarried near a point of* land named-
antiently Drepanum, becaufe the curve between it and Rhium
refembled a Side. We failed in the evenipg, and Tacked from
fhore to fhore, but made little way all night.
A t day-break we had a diftindt view o f Lepanto, a city often
attacked, taken, and recovered in the wars o f the Turks and
Venetians. It is feated on the acclivity of a fleep^hill/ and' has
been likened to the Papal crown, the lateral walls being eroded
by
by four other ranges, and afeending to a point, or fummit, on
which is a caftle terminating the fortification. The wall next
to the fea is indented with an oval harbour, of which the
entrance is narrow and capable o f admitting only barks and
(mall gallies. The valley on each fide of the town was dufky
With trees. The gulf is named from it ; but by the Greeks the
place is called Epadtos, as antiently Naupadtos. It belonged to
the Locri Ozolæ ; whofe fea-coaft, beginning from Cirrha and
Phoois, extended a little more than two hundred ftadia or twenty
five miles.
Passing Lepânto, we came between the promontories
Rhium and Antirhium, diftant froth each other feven ftadia, or
Ms than a mile. Thé ftrait, which divides them, was five
ftadia wide. The Chriftians often invading the Ottoman dominions
on this fide, Bajazet in 1482 eredted caftles at the mouth
o f the gulf. One is called the caftle of Romelia, the other of
thé Mórèa. Both Were taken by the Venetian admiral in
1536. The Turkifh governors in 1687 blowed up their walls,
which were afterwards reftofed. We failed clofe by the latter,
a mean fortrefs', on a low point of land, much out o f repair,
with thé lion of" St. Mark over thé gate-ways.
W e doubled cape Rhium, and before noomanchored in the
road of Patræ. Between this place and Lepanto the Chriftians
in 1 57-1 obtained a vidtory from the Turks in one of the moft
confiderable battles, which ever happened at fea. The gulf
of Corinth was reckoned eighty five miles long.
N n 2 C H A P.