this private
warfare has been supprest, the law of revenge exists.

From the summit of the first range we overlooked a wild, glorious
landscape. The hills, wooded with oak, and swimming in soft blue vapor,
interlocked far before us, inclosing the loveliest green dells in their
embraces, and melting away to the break in Taygetus, which yawned in the
distance. On the right towered the square, embrasured castle of Passava
on the summit of an almost inaccessible hill--the site of the ancient
Las. Far and near, the lower heights were crowned with tall, white
towers.

MESSENIA[59]

BY BAYARD TAYLOR

The plain of Messenia is the richest part of the Morea. Altho its groves
of orange and olive, fig and mulberry, were entirely destroyed during
the Egyptian occupation, new and more vigorous shoots have sprung up
from the old stumps and the desolated country is a garden again,
apparently as fair and fruitful as when it excited the covetousness of
the Spartan thieves. Sloping to the gulf on the south, and protected
from the winds on all other sides by lofty mountains, it enjoys an
almost Egyptian warmth of climate. Here it was already summer, while at
Sparta, on the other side of Taygetus, spring had but just arrived, and
the central plain of Arcadia was still bleak and gray as in winter. As
it was market-day, we met hundreds of the country people going to
Kalamata with laden asses....

We crossed the rapid Pamisos with some difficulty, and ascended its
right bank, to the foot of Mount Evan, which we climbed, by rough paths
through thickets of mastic and furze, to the monastery of Vurkano. The
building has a magnificent situation, on a terrace between Mount Evan
and Mount Ithome, overlooking both the upper and lower plains of the
Pamisos--a glorious spread of landscape, green with spring, and touched
by the sun with the airiest prismatic tints through breaks of heavy
rain-clouds. Inside the courts is an old Byzantine chapel, with
fleurs-de-lis on the decorations, showing that it dates from the time of
the Latin princes. The monks received us very cordially, gave us a
clean, spacious room, and sent us a bottle of excellent wine for dinner.

We ascended Ithome and visited the massive ruins of Messene the same
day. The great gate of the city, a portion of the wall, and four of the
towers of defense, are in tolerable condition. The name of Epaminondas
hallows these remains, which otherwise, grand as they are, do not
impr