nd never found
soldiers so tolerable, though I have been in the garrisons of
Gibraltar and Malta, and seen Spanish, French, Sicilian, and British
troops in abundance. I have had nothing stolen, and was always welcome
to their provision and milk. Not a week ago an Albanian chief, (every
village has its chief, who is called Primate,) after helping us out of
the Turkish galley in her distress, feeding us, and lodging my suite,
consisting of Fletcher, a Greek, two Athenians, a Greek priest, and my
companion, Mr. Hobhouse, refused any compensation but a written paper
stating that I was well received; and when I pressed him to accept a
few sequins, 'No,' he replied; 'I wish you to love me, not to pay me.'
These are his words.

"It is astonishing how far money goes in this country. While I was in
the capital I had nothing to pay by the vizier's order; but since,
though I have generally had sixteen horses, and generally six or
seven men, the expense has not been _half_ as much as staying only
three weeks in Malta, though Sir A. Ball, the governor, gave me a
house for nothing, and I had only _one servant_. By the by, I expect
H---- to remit regularly; for I am not about to stay in this province
for ever. Let him write to me at Mr. Strane's, English consul, Patras.
The fact is, the fertility of the plains is wonderful, and specie is
scarce, which makes this remarkable cheapness. I am going to Athens to
study modern Greek, which differs much from the ancient, though
radically similar. I have no desire to return to England, nor shall
_I_, unless compelled by absolute want, and H----'s neglect; but I
shall not enter into Asia for a year or two, as I have much to see in
Greece, and I may perhaps cross into Africa, at least the Egyptian
part. Fletcher, like all Englishmen, is very much dissatisfied, though
a little reconciled to the Turks by a present of eighty piastres from
the vizier, which, if you consider every thing, and the value of
specie here, is nearly worth ten guineas English. He has suffered
nothing but from cold, heat, and vermin, which those who lie in
cottages and cross mountains in a cold country must undergo, and of
which I have equally partaken with himself; but he is not valiant, and
is afraid of robbers and tempests. I have no one to be remembered to
in England, and wish to hear nothing from it, but that you are well,
and a letter or two on business from H----, whom you may tell to
write. I will write when I can,