TO MR. HENRY DRURY.

“Salsette frigate, May 3. 1810.

“My dear Drury,

“When I left England, nearly a year ago, you requested me to write to you—­I will do so.  I have crossed Portugal, traversed the south of Spain, visited Sardinia, Sicily, Malta, and thence passed into Turkey, where I am still wandering.  I first landed in Albania, the ancient Epirus, where we penetrated as far as Mount Tomarit—­excellently treated by the chief AH Pacha,—­and, after journeying through Illyria, Chaonia, &c., crossed the Gulf of Actium, with a guard of fifty Albanians, and passed the Achelous in our route through Acarnania and AEtolia.  We stopped a short time in the Morea, crossed the Gulf of Lepanto, and landed at the foot of Parnassus;—­saw all that Delphi retains, and so on to Thebes and Athens, at which last we remained ten weeks.

“His Majesty’s ship, Pylades, brought us to Smyrna; but not before we had topographised Attica, including, of course, Marathon and the Sunian promontory.  From Smyrna to the Troad (which we visited when at anchor, for a fortnight, off the tomb of Antilochus) was our next stage; and now we are in the Dardanelles, waiting for a wind to proceed to Constantinople.

“This morning I swam from Sestos to Abydos.  The immediate distance is not above a mile, but the current renders it hazardous;—­so much so that I doubt whether Leander’s conjugal affection must not have been a little chilled in his passage to Paradise.  I attempted it a week ago, and failed,—­owing to the north wind, and the wonderful rapidity of the tide,—­though I have been from my childhood a strong swimmer.  But, this morning being calmer, I succeeded, and crossed the ‘broad Hellespont’ in an hour and ten minutes.

“Well, my dear sir, I have left my home, and seen part of Africa and Asia, and a tolerable portion of Europe.  I have been with generals and admirals, princes and pashas, governors and ungovernables,—­but I have not time or paper to expatiate.  I wish to let you know that I live with a friendly remembrance of you, and a hope to meet you again; and if I do this as shortly as possible, attribute it to anything but forgetfulness.

“Greece, ancient and modern, you know too well to require description.  Albania, indeed, I have seen more of than any Englishman (except a Mr. Leake), for it is a country rarely visited, from the savage character of the natives, though abounding in more natural beauties than the classical regions of Greece,—­which, however, are still eminently beautiful, particularly Delphi and Cape Colonna in Attica.  Yet these are nothing to parts of Illyria and Epirus, where places without a name, and rivers not laid down in maps, may, one day, when more known, be justly esteemed superior subjects, for the pencil and the pen, to the dry ditch of the Ilissus and the bogs of Boeotia.