tion to generation followed the same
occupation. I call them fishermen, because such was the designation
they would have given themselves, had they been questioned on the
subject, and very properly so, for that was the occupation they and
their fathers had followed from time immemorial--when they happened to
have no other more lucrative or interesting employment. Another change
had, however, of late years come over the ancient ruins, and though it
could not be said that they had assumed much of their pristine
appearance, some of the least dilapidated portions, at all events, gave
signs of being the habitations of human beings. One tower especially
had been roofed in, as had a building attached to it, and smoke had been
seen to ascend from its hearth; and faces, hitherto strangers to the
island, had appeared at its windows. The village in which most of the
old inhabitants of the island resided was on the opposite side of the
ravine, in a spot almost as inaccessible as that on which the castle
stood, but somewhat more convenient for a congregation of persons; and
as it was in a manner fortified by art, in addition to what nature had
done, they never found the Turks anxious to attempt the no easy task of
dispossessing them. Although the exterior of the island was so rugged
and unprepossessing, and so destitute of verdure and cultivation, there
were spots in the interior where the orange, the citron, the pear, the
apple, and the vine flourished in rich luxuriance; the sides of the
hills were clothed with olive-trees, and the more even portions with
fields of waving corn, amply sufficient for the simple wants of the
population; and though cattle might be rare, thriving herds of goats
found herbage among the rocks, and on the narrow ledges of the rugged
cliffs. In fact, everything which the mere unsophisticated wants of man
could require, the island itself supplied, except clothing and weapons;
and for the purpose of collecting these the misticoes in the cove were
found extremely useful,--no spot, indeed, could be more calculated for
the abode of peace, innocence, and rural simplicity--a complete island
Arcadia; and so it would possibly have become, had the inhabitants been
less addicted to maritime adventure; but then they would have had to go
about in the state in which were our first parents, before the fall, or
to have dressed in goats' skins; and at all events they would have had
no arms to defend themselves against