Narrative of cruises in the Meditteranean in H.M.S. "Euryalus" and "Chanticleer" during the Greek War of Independence (1822-1826)

Abstract

Chapter VIII

Arrival Malta – Valletta.

Malta, October 20th. 1822. – Although the cloudless day and long evening had ceased to lighten up the Isles of Ionia and its motherland and the weather was gradually assuming the more fragile and varied feature of an opposite season, still, before we left the coast of Epirus, and for a time bade adieu to its land of green myrtle, nothing like the strong winds of winter had yet visited us ; and the southerly declining sun often maintained all the temperance and beauty of summer, from its earliest dawn to his departure in the west. The last of the isles which we saw was Zante, and richly beautiful as that island is in its great central vale and rich groves of green olive trees, so did we leave it smiling under the redundancy of its gathered crops, and its fresh budding hopes of the future; and while gently we were wafted along between it and the Morea. [Excerpt]