Being At Ease In This Respect, Being Furnished Too With
Plenty Of Books, And Finding An Unfailing Source Of Interest In The
Thorough Greekness Of My Captain And My Crew, I Felt Less Anxious
Than Most People Would Have Been About The Probable Length Of The
Cruise.
I knew enough of Greek navigation to be sure that our
vessel would cling to earth like a child
To its mother's knee, and
that I should touch at many an isle before I set foot upon the
Syrian coast; but I had no invidious preference for Europe, Asia,
or Africa, and I felt that I could defy the winds to blow me upon a
coast that was blank and void of interest. My patience was
extremely useful to me, for the cruise altogether endured some
forty days, and that in the midst of winter.
According to me, the most interesting of all the Greeks (male
Greeks) are the mariners, because their pursuits and their social
condition are so nearly the same as those of their famous
ancestors. You will say, that the occupation of commerce must have
smoothed down the salience of their minds; and this would be so
perhaps if their mercantile affairs were conducted according to the
fixed businesslike routine of Europeans; but the ventures of the
Greeks are surrounded by such a multitude of imagined dangers (and
from the absence of regular marts, in which the true value of
merchandise can be ascertained), are so entirely speculative, and
besides, are conducted in a manner so wholly determined upon by the
wayward fancies and wishes of the crew, that they belong to
enterprise rather than to industry, and are very far indeed from
tending to deaden any freshness of character.
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