Life of William Allen - 1846 Author:William Allen Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER XIV. 1819—1820. — Scio — Voyage in the Archipelago—Athens—Corinth— Patras—Quarantine at Zante—Serious Illness—Corfu—S. Grellet proceeds to Italy—W. Al... more »len to Malta—State of Education—Institutions— Voyage to Civita Vecchia—Quarantine—Rome—Florence—Milan— Pass of Mount Cenis—Geneva—Paris—Arrival at Home. "Eighth Month st, 1819.—We lay at anchor part of the night, and in the morning, our boatmen hoisted sail and proceeded; but the wind proving too strong, they ran us into a bay in English Island. There are no trees, and there is scarcely any thing to afford shelter from the burning sun; but we put up our sail for a tent, brought our provision box on shore, and boiled some water for our breakfast. Not far from us, were some arches, where, at a remote period, a large city had evidently stood; some Turks, or Greeks, live in apartments at the end of these ruins, and I was a little startled to see some of them with sabres and large pistols stuck in their girdles. Soon after we left the place, we heard them firing: here we were—humanly speaking—completely in their hands; two boats, containing more armed men, arrived; and, whilst I was walking about, a Turk came up from the ruins. Martini, our servant, had disappeared, and there w:as no one to interpret; but I accosted him with frankness, and he went into our tent and sat down on the corner of the mattress where Stephen was lying; by this time, another armed man came up, and I then thought they might be some of the banditti, mentioned to us by the Consul, who rob, and then murder to make all sure. I thought it right to betray no fear, and stood close to the principal one, while he took out his cartridge, and primed and loaded his pistol; he then sat down and levelled it at a little stone on a stake he had just set up; he missed...« less