the end of the street, instead of going towards the
esplanade, I proceeded quickly towards the sea.
I walked along the beach for a quarter of an hour,
and finding a boat empty, but with a pair of oars,
I got in her, and unfastening her, I rowed as hard
as I could towards a large caicco, sailing against
the wind with six oars. As soon as I had come
up to her, I went on board and asked the carabouchiri
to sail before the wind and to take me to a large
wherry which could be seen at some distance, going
towards Vido Rock. I abandoned the row-boat, and,
after paying the master of the caicco generously,
I got into the wherry, made a bargain with the skipper
who unfurled three sails, and in less than two hours
we were fifteen miles away from Corfu. The wind
having died away, I made the men row against the current,
but towards midnight they told me that they could
not row any longer, they were worn out with fatigue.
They advised me to sleep until day-break, but I refused
to do so, and for a trifle I got them to put me on
shore, without asking where I was, in order not to
raise their suspicions. It was enough for me to
know that I was at a distance of twenty miles from
Corfu, and in a place where nobody could imagine me
to be. The moon was shining, and I saw a church
with a house adjoining, a long barn opened on both
sides, a plain of about one hundred yards confined
by hills, and nothing more. I found some straw
in the barn, and laying myself down, I slept until
day-break in spite of the cold. It was the 1st
of December, and although the climate is very mild
in Corfu I felt benumbed when I awoke, as I had no
cloak over my thin uniform.
The bells begin to toll, and I proceed towards the
church. The long-bearded papa, surprised at my
sudden apparition, enquires whether I am Romeo (a
Greek); I tell him that I am Fragico (Italian), but
he turns his back upon me and goes into his house,
the door of which he shuts without condescending to
listen to me.
I then turned towards the sea, and saw a boat leaving
a tartan lying at anchor within one hundred yards
of the island; the boat had four oars and landed her
passengers. I come up to them and meet a good-looking
Greek, a woman and a young boy ten or twelve years
old. Addressing myself to the Greek, I ask him
whether he has had a pleasant passage, and where he
comes from. He answers in Italian that he has
sailed from Cephalonia with his wife and his son,
and that he is bound for Venice; he had landed to
hear mass at the Church of Our Lady of Casopo, in order
to ascertain whether his father-in-law was still alive,
and whether he would pay the amount he had promised
him for the dowry of his wife.
“But how can you find it out?”