New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-12-26

ST.
fo,suear quotations from Byron. No one, who
has no; travelled in Chlldo Harold's track, can
understand the astonishing facility with when
ms words Zip mo your mouth. You may no,
hsye read them for years You may be utterly al
a loss when asked TO repeal them but stand once
Oh the spot, and you can hnd no other language.
Here, for two days. | have been so haunted with
" Leucadia's far projecting rock of woe and
seine dozen other such lines, which | have not
read since my schoolboy years, that if had the
book with ne, should certainly throw II INTO
the sea SO fresh and vivid in all their Inca
ments are Byron's pictures, that the very land
scapes prompt your memory with his ePi'hels
and images In this particular, his genus Is
never at fault. II he does not, indeed, behold
the secret soul and expresslon-the lie within
hfe-ofnature, with the anOinted vision OF Words
worth, surely, Of all those who celebrate the glo
rious array OF her visible fOrms-of those who
sing in the outer vestibnle of her temple-none
stands nobeT than he.
Morning brought something besides stern Al
bania's hills-a strong head wind and disturb.
ing sea. But let that pass the blue mountain
walls of Albania are drawing near, and beyond
that distant promontOy we pass from the Adm
attic into the Ionian sea The ridges near the
coast appear terribly bare and rugged. Their
sides are dry and bleached, and worn into deep
gulleys by floods which have left bare the sum-
nit cliffs of calcareous rock In the sunken hol-
lows fronting the sea we see occasionally a
sprinkle of white spots these are Arnaout vii
lagos. but we are too distant to perceive any llv
ing creature. Nevertheless, the atmosphere is
Of such remarkable purity that the mountains
seem close at hand, and the apparent absence of
all life gives them the most dead and desolate
expression. Soon thu setting sun lights them
with rosy and amethy tine hues, and as the twi-
hight advances, fires are kindled on the cliffs
The fishers on the shore of Corfu answer with
their uddy beacons and lighthouse on rock
in the strait holds up It's lantern to show us into
the harbor
i have spent four hours this morning IN ram
bling over the Corcyrean soil. The town is built
ON both sides Of small rocky peninsula, project
ing from the center Of a spacious bay which
opens toward the Albanian coast, and Is thor
oughly and.locked 1t is defended by the eta
del, which occupies the end of the peninsula, by
an immense fort on a hill behind the town, and
by the Island of Yldo, IN the harb0r, which the
English have strongly fortified The houses
dazzlngly white, and built in the cool Italian style
rise above one another from the sea- and are
backed, at the top of the hill, by the battered
walls and bastions left from the French and We
netian occupancy The population Is mixture
of Greeks, Italians and English, but the former
predominate and Romaic is the principal Ian
guage heard in the streets. ! assembled to the
esplanade a spacious square overlooking both
sides of the bay. The Lord High Commissioner
Of the Islands has palace fronting this square
and several Highanders, part of the regiment
which now garrisons Corfu, were pacing guard
before it, Their naked knees gave great diver
sion to our German and Italian passengers.
At Corfu you first touch classic earth Here
Homer has been before you. and here you may
still behold the PhGnican galley which h"r0
Ulysses TO his home, transformed INTO rock by
the vengeance Of Neptune, in sight OF its des
tined haven. The island IS now noted for its
sudden and perverse changes of temperature,
but certainly no air could be more pure, sweet
and elastic than that am now breathing. In
spite of the dryness Of the season, the shores are
green with groves of olive and fig trees and the
villas scattered along the bay are burned in the
dark foliage OF the grange
Ocf 21-We are crossing the mouth OF the
Gulf OF Coron Mt. TaygetuS lies on our left
his lofty summit folded in clouds. On the lower
slopes Of the Manote peninsula, can count
FIVE or six villages, each surrounded by small
patch OF green, but elsewhere the land is brown
and dead Al the Morea Is now suffering from
a prolonged drouth, yet even Its desolatlon Is
made beautiful by the purple veil Of the Grecian
atmosphere
We left Corfu at noon yesterday. The heat
was intense until we had passed the strait and
| met the breezes of the Acaranian hills. We
sailed down the shore, by Parga, whose citadel
looks out over the waves, (here Childe Harold
ogs your elbow AGAIN. and at sunset swept
under the crags of Santa Maura, the ancient
| Leucada ! looked long through the dusk for
| Sapphos Leap, and may have deserted 1t, but am
not sufficiently certain of the fact 10 give de-
scnpnon
As we turn the corner Of Leucadia, another
island appears between Cephalona and the dis
tant Grecian shore, and we feel our way by
starlight through the narrow strait This black
rugged island, whose cliffs almost oyerhang our
| deck is Ithaca 4 greater than Byron has your
ear now, and II YOU cannot recall the uch IIo-
moric hoxametcrs, (ss, unfortunately. | cannotD
YOU may think OF him who
drank delight OF battle with his peers,
Far ON the ringing plains OF windy Troy"
| IN language OF living poet, for which the shade
| Of Homer Will not reproach you.
1t was too dark to distinguish anything butt the
| abrupt outlines OF the island yet did not go be-
low TIL we had emerged from the chsnnel.
had slept but three hours, when the shock of the
anchor, dropping IN the harbor Of Zante, brought