1 3
2 that there remained only a quantity of burduffes (ox hides,
3 containing tallow) which could not be removed in consequence
4 of their great weight. They were, therefore, obliged to cut the
5 tallow with axes and large knives, and throw it piecemeal into
6 the sea. This required hard labour, as the tallow was frozen.
7 In this operation, our Greek captain (we had also a Turkish
8 one) broke his yatagan (a large Turkish knife); and upon seeing
9 that the water in the hold continued to increase, he gave up all
10 hope, and retired to his little cabin in despair. There he fell on
11 the knees before the image of his Ylavayia (the Virgin), and left
12 the vessel to the care of heaven and the Turkish captain.
13 Happily the tempest did not last long ; the storm, which had
14 come on so suddenly, left us with the same rapidity. Filled with
15 hope, the day dawned upon us, when we descried the high moun-
16 tains of Greece in the distance. The first rays of the sun, whose
17 appearance infused new life and fresh courage into our breasts,
18 arose majestically from the horizon, and beaming brightly, dif-
19 fused warmth through our limbs, previously benumbed with
20 cold. With the aid of the mizen-mast, and favoured by a gentle
21 breeze, towards the evening of the same day we approached the
22 shore, where we cast anchor. At the break of day on the follow-
23 ing morning we disembarked, and thanked heaven for our de-
24 liverance. From thence we walked up about ten miles, and
25 arrived at Apollonia, a city once celebrated among the Greeks,
26 but now of little importance, and bearing the name of Sissopoli,
27 to which place the vessel was brought to be refitted. I here
28 found my companions, the Arnauts, who had taken up their
29 quarters in a large coffee-house, where they literally roasted their
30 frozen feet at a coal fire. Although they discontinued this in
31 consequence of my warnings, it was too late; and I afterwards
32 learned that several of them died in Constantinople of mortifica-
33 tion. It was so hot in the coffee-house that I could not stay
34 there long, and although I kept aloof from the stove, which was
35 heated to redness, in order to avoid the sudden transition from
36 cold to heat, I nevertheless caught a severe rheumatism in my
37 feet, which tormented me for four months during the winter;
38 VOF.. I.
39 T>